The chances Romania has of insisting on its choice for European Agriculture Commissioner will depend on how Romania’s diplomats negotiate with the members of the Union, President Traian Basescu said early this month. Ciolos enjoys the support of France and Italy, as well as the countries that share Romania’s vision on the EU’s agricultural policy, Minister of Foreign Affairs Cristian Diaconescu said.
According to former Presidential Advisor Dan Petre, and researcher of the Romanian Diplomatic Institute, Ciolos’s strengths are his professional experience and the fact that he knows the European mechanisms in the agricultural sector well. His weakness relates to his being an independent, and support given by the European Parliament to the candidates is closely related to their political affiliation.
Although, in theory, commissioners are not responsible for their actions to the governments that supported them, Ciolos could actually help Romania’s agriculture, according to Petre. Romania, in which agriculture represents a major share of the economy, continues to have difficulties with absorbing European funds. Romania has not yet drafted a coherent agricultural policy directive, considering that EU members are divided into two systems: industrial agriculture (Germany, Denmark) and small farm agriculture (France), Petre indicated.
