Romania takes EU helm amid tensions with Brussels

Bucharest

ROMANIA will take over the European Union's (EU) rotating presidency on Jan 1 at a tumultuous time for the bloc, which is at loggerheads with the increasingly populist government in Bucharest on multiple fronts.

Several crucial events will take place during Romania's first six-month tenure in the presidency, including Brexit, EU parliamentary elections in which eurosceptics will vie for increased influence, and wrangling over the next budget.

Ongoing tensions between Romania, one of the EU's most consistently europhile countries since it joined in 2007, and Brussels may complicate things further.

Romania's left-wing government has recently begun to adopt the sort of nationalist rhetoric expounded by nearby Hungary and Poland.

All three countries are embroiled in disputes with the EU over controversial reforms that critics say undermine the rule of law.

Liviu Dragnea, head of the ruling Social Democrats (PSD) and widely seen as Romania's most powerful man, has slammed the EU as "unfair", claiming that Brussels is seeking to deny Bucharest the "right to hold its own opinions".

One of the main reasons for the cooling of relations between Bucharest and Brussels is the PSD's planned overhaul of Romania's judiciary, which the government said is aimed at clamping down on "abuses" by judges and magistrates.

But the European Commission has called for the reforms to be scrapped, saying that they undermine the fight against corruption in one of the EU's most graft-prone states.

European officials "have the feeling, perhaps justifiably, that these reforms are for the benefit of Dragnea", said political scientist Andrei Taranu.

The government has proposed a criminal amnesty for politicians including Dragnea, who was given a suspended jail sentence for electoral fraud in 2016 and is being investigated in two other criminal cases.

In this context, Dragnea's switch to a more populist or even nationalist tone could be more opportunistic rather than ideological, Mr Taranu argued.

"He is copying the illiberal rhetoric of the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban without understanding the concepts involved," he said.

But there are no signs that the government will put its plans on hold during the country's EU presidency. The amnesty decree is expected to be issued soon, with a European source warning that such a step would cross a "red line".

If the decree went ahead, Romania would be distracted from pan-European problems and instead have to devote energy to defending itself to its partners, the same source said, adding that the country "already suffers from a lack of credibility".

Moreover, Romania may find it difficult to speak with a unified voice, given the tug of war between the government of Viorica Dancila - the third PSD prime minister since 2016 - and centre-right President Klaus Iohannis. Mr Iohannis, a keen pro-European who has frequently clashed with the government, represents Romania on the European Council.

The PSD won a comfortable election victory in 2016, but quickly sparked the country's biggest wave of protests since the collapse of communism with an attempt to water down anti-corruption laws.

Demonstrations have continued in the capital Bucharest but the PSD still enjoys solid support in poorer and more rural parts of the country, which have benefited from recent rises in wages and benefits.

Political analyst Radu Alexandru describes Romanian society as "very polarised and divided".

As well as being one of the EU's poorest countries, Romania also suffers from huge inequality. EU membership has brought some tangible benefits to poorer regions of the country. Romania has received 32 billion euros (S$49.4 billion) in EU cohesion funds, part of which went to supplying running water to 40 per cent of rural homes - up from just one per cent at the fall of communism in 1989.

But as sociologist Iulian Stanescu of the ICCV research institute points out, "EU membership can't solve everything". AFP