Gunther Krichbaum, a rapporteur for Romania of the CDU parliamentary group in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the German Parliament, warned last Wednesday that the application of the safe guard clauses on Romania might strike back unless Romania intensified reforms. The German official claimed that the political crisis ongoing in Romania was jeopardizing the implementation of reforms. Unless Romania hurried with the reforms, he argued, the activation of the safeguard clauses might follow. According to Krichbaum, Germany was under the impression that Romanian politicians were more preoccupied with themselves than with a determined intensification of the reform process. He described the postponement of the elections of MEPs in Romania as worrying, since it was decided just two months before the time scheduled. He commented that, if the poor score of the Romanian PM's party in recent polls was the reason for postponing elections, it could cast much doubt on the approach to the democratic process. He added that Romanian officials to reach the Parliament of Europe needed to get acknowledged by citizens' votes soon. The German official outlined that the trust Romania was the beneficiary of needed facts to back it or the safeguard clause issue might emerge again because of the bad new prevailing. Krichbaum also argued that the efforts taken to fight against corruption had lately diminished and he used the long parliamentary debates on the law to establish the National Integrity Agency as example. (...)

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