VIDEO Interview Siegfried Mureșan, Vice-President of the European People’s Party: „As long as you are an MEP you should have no other source of income”/ „I think it would be possible for Moldova to join the EU in a few years if it maintains the pace of reforms”

The transparency of MEPs’ work, rules for their income and expenses, the benefits of membership in the European Union and the Republic of Moldova’s path towards EU accession, with its progresses and difficulties, are the topics that Siegfried Mureșan, PNL MEP and Vice-President of the European People’s Party, talked about in an interview with G4Media journalist Dan Alexe.

Siegfried Mureșan stressed first of all that the approach of presenting and explaining the work of the European institutions is a beneficial one, given that „we often hear, including in Romania, that we do not absorb European funds, that we pay more to the EU than we benefit from, whereas the reality is that since joining the EU until today we have paid 27 billion euros into the EU budget but we have absorbed 82 billion, 3 times more”.

Topic: Transparency of MEPs’ work

Question: ‘The European Commission has been proposing for several months an ethics body, an internal ethics watchdog for MEPs and members of the European institutions, why is there a need for yet another internal institution to deal with something in the criminal area? Because it’s about MEP corruption, it all started with Qatargate, corrupt MEPs, so do we need another institution?”

In his response, Muresan pointed out that „the EU institutions are better at transparency than their reputation. Many MEPs’ votes are documented as roll-call votes, electronic, all plenary and specialist meetings can be followed online, the records remain”.

However, in the context of suspicions about possible undeclared benefits, he said that „even more transparency is needed, which is why I think it is justified that all MEPs should publish their declarations of wealth and interests, as we are obliged to do in Romania. Many MEPs are not obliged to do so, and I think they should, so that we know where their sources of income come from, whether they represent certain interests and which interests they represent. I think that as long as you are a member of the EP you should concentrate on this activity, not have any other source of income.”

On regulating the lobbying activity?

„It may be natural to meet with companies to discuss the impact of legislation on their business, but it is not natural to have a consultancy contract with a company whose interest you then represent. We need transparency and clear rules,” said Muresan.

Topic: The obligations of an MEP and the consequences of not fulfilling them

Question: „Isn’t it concerning that some MEPs join this institution and remain inactive, which has been the case in certain instances, indicating potential corruption and misuse of funds? What work is required of them? Is it compulsory for an MEP to be a member of committees and commissions?”

Siegfried Mureșan explained that there is a rule „to be a member of at least one specialized committee which gives you rights but also obligations, attendance at the vote is compulsory, either in person or to find an alternate member to go to the vote”. On the issue of breaking the rules, he explained that there are also sanctions: „MPs who miss more than half of the votes in plenary in one day do not receive their daily allowance, if you miss more than half of the votes in one year you can even lose half of your salary.”

„There are such members even now, people who do nothing, they exist in all states, they exist in all political groups but more so in anti-European, Eurosceptic parties where there are MEPs who while receiving a salary from the European Parliament, criticize the European Parliament and the EU,” the MEP added. However, he points out, these are few and far between, they are exceptions and it is important for voters to find out and sanction them by voting.

Accession of the Republic of Moldova to the European Union

Question: How long will this EU accession process take and can we estimate a timeframe?

Siegfried Mureșan briefly explained the steps taken so far:

„The Republic of Moldova applied in March 2022. In less than 4 months, the European Union sent a questionnaire which was filled in and evaluated and in June, all the institutions and by unanimous decision of the EU Member States decided that Moldova becomes a candidate state.

At the same time, the Republic of Moldova received a list of 9 recommendations, reforms to be implemented by the authorities in Chisinau. These reforms concern the fight against corruption, money laundering and the strengthening of justice. The progress made now is greater than ever before.
By the end of this year, on the basis of the implementation of these reforms, we will have to take a decision on whether to move to the next stage or not. Last week, in an EP resolution, we recommended that accession negotiations should already start.
My first objective was that the EP members understood the importance of this country for the EU; it mattered a lot that in the first days of the war in Ukraine people opened their homes for refugees, it increased a lot the credibility.
My second objective was that Rep. Moldova to receive consistent support, and in the last two years, all the aid proposals have been voted quickly, with a large majority. My third was to obtain and maintain broad cross-party support for the Republic of Moldova here, and the resolution was voted for by 448 parliamentarians, a near-unanimous support among the pro-European political groups. There are about 15% in the EP who still have reservations.
The EU has moved extremely fast, in only 4 months, everything depends on the pace of implementation of reforms in Chisinau, if it is maintained, I think it is possible an accession in a few years, but we must say, it also depends on the situation in Ukraine.
How can Moldova be welcomed into the EU when part of its territory is occupied?

Muresan explained: „The fact that against the will of the authorities in Chisinau the Russian Federation is stationing troops in the Transnistrian region is a problem, it is a frozen conflict, there is no solution to this problem yet but it should not be an impediment to progress on other chapters where progress can be made. If reforms continue at the pace we are seeing, in a few years it can join the EU.”

Traducere Ovidiu H.