Romania praised for its presidency of the Council of the European Union

The Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union, which started 6 months ago and it is about to end in a few days, was an unexpected success. At the core of the “success factor” stays the hard work of the Governmental teams who prepared for this task starting off a couple of years ago. It was then when Romania has begun getting ready for what it would’ve been its first mission of the kind, holding the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union (not to be confused with the European Council, though – they are different European institutions). At the core of the “unexpected factor” stays something else, more interesting if viewed with objectivity.

Disregard of what the European officials considered before the 1st of January, the date when the Romanian presidency officially started, Romania has accomplished a lot more than anybody would’ve imagined – no less than 90 files, on different important negotiation chapters, were finalized during the Romanian presidency, a lot more than during the Austrian presidency which preceded the Romanian one.

Were the Romanians lucky? Not at all. Romanians were simply more than determined to fulfill their tasks, and behind their success also stays the “unexpected factor”, as mentioned above. That “unexpected factor” was the disbelief that Romania would be good at holding this important office, a feeling which was mainly fueled by the official statements of the Romanian president, Klaus Werner Johannis, who politically opposes its own Governement, according to which “Romania was not ready to take over the six-month rotating mandate as the leading country of the Council of the European Union“. Later, his statements were amplified by the very president of the European Union Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, who said that “the Bucharest government has not fully understood what it means to chair the EU countries“.

The Romanian president’s statements, issued in November 2018, with just a few weeks before the 1st of January, stirred the pot of the European politics, and the Finnish Prime Minster, the country which was to follow Romania during this rotating mandate, offered to take over the mandate instead of Romania. The offer was declined by the Romanian Government, but the questions regarding the Romanian leadership skills remained.

Now, the Romanian Government is about to hand over the rotating mandate to Finland, after a very successful half a year. Now, praised by both Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the European Commission, who initially criticized Romania and expressed his own doubts, and by Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, the Romanian president takes all the credit and acts like a political superstar, even though six month ago he was the first to doubt the ability of its own Government to accomplish this task.

Will president Johannis praise in his turn the performance of its own Government during the Romanian presidency of the Council of the EU or will he keep the praises for himself, even though he doesn’t deserve these praises?