Senate head fears RO candidate for EU Prosecutor will block country’s access to EU funds if she gets the job

Calin Popescu Tariceanu, president of the Romanian Senate and head of junior ruling coalition partner ALDE, believes that Laura Codruta Kovesi, the former chief prosecutor of Romania’s anticorruption directorate DNA and one of the two contenders for the position of European Chief Prosecutor, will block Romania’s access to EU funds if she gets the top EU prosecutor job.

“After splitting top European jobs strictly between four Western countries, with Germany and France at the forefront, I saw happy faces here, as some believe that, as compensation, this would increase Laura Kovesi’s chances to get the post of European Chief Prosecutor,” Tariceanu wrote on his Facebook page.

He also said that “we should seriously ask ourselves” if this appointment is not actually a “poisoned apple.” “I am afraid that Mrs Kovesi's main role would be to block our access to EU funds, under the pretext of endless investigations she is so good at. In other words, the EU would give us with one hand and block us with two.”

“Should we recall how many local firms have been liquidated after endless investigations of owners and managers? Should we recall how the Romanian capital was basically pushed to the ground and forced to make room for foreign investors who had their road sprinkled with flower petals? Just as the Romanians find today how the decisions of European Commissioner Dacian Julien Ciolos hit the Romanian farmers’ subsidies, I’m afraid that we will also discover over the years how the European Prosecutor Kovesi buried what was left of the Romanian capital,” Tariceanu also said.

There are two candidates left in the race for the European Chief Prosecutor job, namely Romanian Laura Codruta Kovesi and Frenchman Jean-François Bohnert, and no final decision has been made so far.

(Photo source: Facebook/Calin Popescu Tariceanu)