Romanian reformist party USR criticizes president’s National Defence Strategy

Dan Barna, the president of Romanian reformist party USR, announced that the party's MPs would not vote the National Defense Strategy 2020-2024 that president Klaus Iohannis has sent to the Parliament for approval.

Barna argues that "corruption, inexplicably, becomes an issue of secondary importance" in the document, Mediafax reported. The USR leader says that the corruption phenomenon should have received a more focal position since "Romania has not yet repaired the legislative disaster in the justice system left behind by the Dragnea regime."

Barna accuses that dubious public procurement has continued even during a coronavirus pandemic, and there have been fewer and fewer cases of high corruption investigated by competent institutions.

The National Defence Strategy for the period 2020-2024 was adopted by the National Defence Council (CSAT) last week and sent to the Parliament for adoption. It almost eliminated corruption from the outlined threats, risks, and internal vulnerabilities.

The new strategy removed the intelligence service from gathering information on the phenomenon of corruption. It is a radical change of approach from the previous strategy, proposed by Iohannis in 2015, in which corruption was mentioned as one of the great dangers to national security, G4Media commented.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/George Calin)