Debate contributions by Claudiu-Richard TÂRZIU

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I am promoting in Romania a political strategy which I have called ‘decontaminating public discourse from ideological interference’. Romania is today a country where the truth value of an idea must be certified by the authorities or can be canceled by the decision of a force institution. By comparison, I tell you that the most harmful parasite that endangers EU agriculture is the same neo-Marxist or, in particular, eco-Marxist ideology. Agriculture is an ecosystem with precise mechanisms of self-regulation and adaptation. Every intermediate stage, from production to sale, is today politically influenced and regulated for the benefit of a political-economic interest group. The differentiated amount of state-to-state subsidies in the European Union, as well as the control of 75% of the commercial flow in Romania by large multinational retail chains, seriously disadvantages Romanian farmers. Do you want agriculture to flourish again? Fight the ideology that has infested this strategic area.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, I raise a very strong alarm about democracy in Romania, which is in mortal danger. On December 6 last year, an unprecedented event took place in the European Union, namely the annulment of the presidential elections in Romania. On March 9 this year, the candidate who had the best chance of winning the presidential election and who won last year's first round was banned from running again. Tomorrow-the day after tomorrow will probably be banned parties that do not correspond to Romania's new policy, which has taken a path of dictatorship. What is the EU doing in this situation? The European Commission has no reaction. There are officials covering this abuse, and the reactions of the United States of America are simply ignored by the Romanian authorities. I draw your attention to the fact that today it happens in Romania, and tomorrow it can happen in any country of the European Union.

Madam President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, the Republic of Moldova has two historic chances in its journey towards the European Union: - firstly, a complete legislative and administrative bibliography for the reforms they need to implement, translated into Romanian and tested in practice by the Bucharest authorities; - secondly, a solid partnership with Romania, which has solved operatively almost all the economic crises and incidents that our brothers went through beyond the Prut. Romania has crossed a complicated and challenging path in the EU accession process, and some of the mistakes and failures made then produce devastating effects for the national economy even today, almost 20 years later. It would be all the more painful to see such errors repeated in the years to come. The reform and growth mechanism is obviously a major opportunity for the Republic of Moldova, especially in these troubled times. Although we still believe that the natural path to the European Union for the Republic of Moldova would have been reunification with Romania, we will continue to be the first to unconditionally support the modernization and democratization processes sincerely assumed by the Chisinau administration.

Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, today we are being hit by the effects of a profound crisis on the labour market in general, but especially in strategic areas, as is the medical system. If at the level of the European Union the subject is worrying, in Romania and in the less developed states of the European Union the phenomenon becomes downright dangerous. For decades, developed Western countries have absorbed as a professional elite sponge of medical staff in the East, under the mirage of vastly higher wages and much better working conditions. This migratory flow has generated devastating effects over time, rich countries have come to the conclusion that there is no need to develop education and professional training, as long as they can secure the necessary personnel through import. The other states have been unable to witness the depopulation of the system. From this truth we must start in the titanic effort to restore the labor market in the European Union. Development gaps between states produce catastrophic effects over time, both for the poor and the rich. These gaps need to be reduced.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the inevitable has happened! The world's largest democracy has installed a president who has already begun to demolish the ideological edifice built by the radical American left and exported to the world with all its might. As a guarantor of European security and an essential trading partner for the European Union, the United States cascadingly abandons progressive policies and claims its sovereign right to produce the well-being of this generation with all available technological means and resources. For the European Union, it is time for a historic choice. We can stop the destruction of the traditional industrial system, the only one that has proven its viability so far, or we can choose to become captive customers of the world, freed from the constraints of a utopian ideology. For the radical left in this House, it seems that the choice between freedom and dependency is very difficult.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, corruption is not foreign to any state of the European Union and it is also present, as we know, at the top of the European Union. Public sector fraud is the most attractive type of crime and the most lucrative for cross-party and transnational mafias. The more and more diversified the state invests, the more opportunities for fraud in local or national budgets. The authorities often invoke the lack of resources to fight corruption effectively, but this is only an excuse for incompetence, when it is not actually a maneuver to camouflage complicities. The states are damaged by tens of billions of euros per year, so the financing of the fight against corruption could be made by recovering to the state budget a few percent of the stolen sums. Excessive bureaucracy created by thick legislation favours corruption. In conclusion, in order to eliminate corruption, we need simple and easily applicable legislation, little bureaucracy and a smart state administration.

Mr President, colleagues, Romanians are directly interested in the solutions we will identify together, because two counties in Romania, Vaslui and Neamt, have the highest employment rate in the European Union in agriculture, forestry and fisheries, according to Eurostat data. National statistics show that, out of a total of 7 697 000 employed persons in Romania in 2023, 11.9% worked in agriculture, but only 8% were also qualified persons. I want to point out that the problems in agriculture affect both employers and employees. On the one hand, employers are facing a severe shortage of skilled labour. On the other hand, agricultural workers are affected by seasonal employment. Many of the workers are not employed with legal documents, do not have medical and social insurance. Advanced solutions for Romania can also be valid at the level of other European states. There is a need for vocational training in agricultural schools and better regulation of the employment status of farmers to ensure that their work is paid fairly and that they receive social protection if needed.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, freedom of expression is not negotiable. Whatever the risks, we must take them in the name of the freedom for which many of our fellow men have given their blood. The fear of disinformation and manipulation in no way justifies the censorship that always leads to dictatorship. Censorship goes hand in hand with propaganda. Therefore, by instituting censorship, we not only fight against propaganda, but we stimulate the propaganda of those who have the power to censor. For 28 years I was a journalist and all my work was motivated by the freedom to tell the truth. In the 35 years since the last dictatorship in Romania fell, we have seen how freedom of speech is increasingly restricted through political pressure, corruption and, finally, censorship. Because of the restriction of freedom of expression, the written press in Romania is almost extinct, and televisions have become, for the most part, hosts of teleshopping shows paid for with public money, which seriously distort reality. The only free speech space we have left is the internet, but here too the screw tightens more and more. We want to put the internet under complete censorship, we want dictatorship. The solution to disinformation is not censorship, but telling the truth. Manipulation cannot be combated by censorship, but by cultivating discernment. And for people to have discernment, there is a need for education and culture that bear fruit in an environment of freedom. All this tells you a man born during the communist dictatorship in Romania, who felt on his skin what the lack of freedom means, including the lack of freedom of expression.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, the most effective weapon against external threats has been, is and always will be development. The effort to protect the territory, the population and the common values starts from the spirit of cohesion of communities and nations and is supported by the development of society. Both solidarity and development depend significantly on leaders. Unfortunately, we have an unwelcome experience from an extremely strange pandemic, and a war at the EU border, which has cost us and is costing us enormously in human lives, material goods and money. Both in one case and in the other, a political elite has made decisions in contempt of the essential principles underpinning the community edifice – transparency, equality and fundamental human rights. This elite acted under ideological imperatives, defying reality and thus causing even greater damage. Let us not fall into the temptation to continue in this way, because Ursula von der Leyen's intentions regarding the new European strategy for civilian and military training indicate this to us. Before we prepare for the turbulent times that are on the horizon, it is imperative to urgently eliminate the inequities at the heart of this political construction and to close the development gaps between states...

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, in a social-political order inspired by Thomas Morus, the pact of the future would be an ideal programmatic document, an exposition of delightful objectives and which, according to the authors, will be carried out rigorously and without hesitation, and humanity will continue its triumphal march towards a bright future, towards perfection. But is this an objective reality or is it just a beautiful dream? This is not the first time in history that certain elites, temporarily in positions of power, claim to hold the truth and behave as such. I don't think there is a person in this room who doesn't want peace, equal rights and natural freedoms, development and prosperity. But this is an ideology, and we all know how the actions stemming from the ideologies that claimed to build the perfect society ended. So I ask you for realism and discernment.

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, the Republic of Moldova has taken a bold and very difficult path towards the democratic world which it has looked upon with hope for several decades. Today, the authorities from Chişinău face an assault of the pro-Russian forces that want to maintain the Republic of Moldova in the geopolitical space patronized by the Russian Federation. The media and information war is unequal, but Romania and the European Union can decisively tip the balance on the side of truth. For the Republic of Moldova to continue on its European path, only one thing is sufficient – the truth. The truth is that the Republic of Moldova must break away from the communist past and the Commonwealth of Independent States. It must declassify the archives of the Soviet secret services, proceed with political lustration, return church property confiscated by the Soviet state, and demolish Soviet symbols. It also needs to get out of the C.S.I., which is 100 percent controlled by Russia. The truth is that the fastest and safest way for the Republic of Moldova to join the European Union is reunification with its mother country, Romania.

On the left side, I did not expect another approach, a totally ideologized approach, without any connection to reality. If you think that this transition from cars running on diesel, gasoline, gas, to those running on electricity, is a favorable one for mankind, favorable for industries, favorable for national economies, you are very much mistaken. It is not even possible, in fact, because we have seen how all these electric cars work, how they let us down when it is harder for man and that they do not help everything the European Union does to depollute the whole world...

Mr President, the obsession of eco-bureaucrats with saving the planet by banning the sale of cars powered by fossil fuels is a utopia, a dangerous fantasy, the terrible consequences of which are becoming more and more visible. Due to irrational and unattainable goals, the automotive industry is on the verge of bankruptcy. The ceiling imposed by the Commission on lowering the average emission limit is absurd and exceeding it will mean the financial collapse of producers. The ambition of some to give up cars with internal combustion engines in favor of electric vehicles is proving, day by day, indiscriminate and increasingly regrettable. The forced electrification of the car industry will not save humanity, on the contrary, it will condemn it to ruin.

Madam President, ladies and gentlemen, this year's floods in Romania are neither a first nor an accident. Periodically, my country is underwater because it's mismanaged. In the case of Romania, there is an urgent need for a financial intervention, but also for one from a political and administrative point of view, because a disaster such as that registered this month is no longer possible. Recent floods in Romania have so far left 5,400 households devastated, more than 15,000 people affected, seven people dead and four national roads destroyed. The total amount of damage is not calculated exactly at this point in time, but is estimated to exceed EUR 100 million. Given the extent of the damage and the number of families affected, we call on the European Commission to immediately use the Solidarity and Emergency Aid Reserve to support Romanians hit by this trouble. Furthermore, the European Commission could be involved in solving the underlying problems that favour such natural disasters.

Mr President, in Romania over the last five years, due to forced commitments by the European Commission, electricity generation capacities amounting to 5 500 megawatts have been arbitrarily shut down. Basically, this sector has been amputated. Nothing similar has been put in place. Last week, the European Commission asked Romania to increase the share of green energy in total energy consumption from 36% to 41% by 2030. The decision of the Romanian Government, which will not delay, will still be taken arbitrarily, in the absence of a national energy strategy and this will mean a limitation of access to our own natural resources of gas, oil and coal that we have in abundance. The results are visible. Romania pays the highest price for energy at European level. In the long run, the country's development, which has to catch up anyway, will be negatively affected by high energy prices. The solution is the rational use of all available resources, in accordance with the environment and in order to increase the standard of living of the population and economic development, so that Romania prospers, not sinks into poverty. A European Energy Union must also take into account Romania's interest.

Mr President, one of the most important challenges for the current term of office of the European Parliament is to reduce the development gaps between the countries of the Union. There can be no question of a coherent strategy for building the European project, given that the tasks and obligations of states are imperative, but opportunities and opportunities remain the privilege of advanced economies. We have draconian environmental policies, but no government is forced by similar legal instruments to fight drought and soil desertification. We live in a united Europe, but freedom of movement is selectively regulated through a mechanism called the ‘Schengen area’. Romania has agreed to close coal mines and thermal power plants in recent years, which could provide electricity at a bearable price, in the middle of the crisis, and today pays the most expensive energy price in the European Union. And then I wonder, how many categories of citizens does the Union have and, above all, where is the ideal that underpinned the European construction: reducing the development gap between Member States?

Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, how much longer can you tolerate the nagging wooden language, the chimeras and the lack of solutions anchored in reality? How do you think it helps hard-pressed farmers to hear that their future means ‘sustainability’ and ‘resilience’, ‘innovation and ‘competitiveness’? That is, empty words and zero effectiveness. It is not on the climate that we should blame when the responsibility lies with politicians and bureaucrats, who too often have knowingly underestimated or neglected this vital sector. Agriculture is not done in front of the laptop, manipulating figures, or from ministerial chairs, promising ridiculous compensation. I draw attention to the fact that no representative of Romania was invited to the table of this strategic dialogue. Romania, the fifth country in the European Union, with 13.5 million hectares dedicated to agriculture, the country with the most farmers, one of the largest producers of cereals, honey and sunflower seeds, the country that registered the second highest growth last year.