PM advances a first name to replace Rovana Plumb as candidate for the EU Commissioner seat. Ursula von der Leyen’s demand

After the EP’S JURI Committee has decided on Monday to maintain its verdict that Rovana Plumb is not eligible as European Commissioner due to integrity issues and after PM Viorica Dăncilă  had announced she will make another proposal, on Tuesday the Romanian premier advanced a first name to replace Plumb.

Asked in Ploiesti if the PSD Secretary General Mihai Fifor is a suitable candidate for the EU Commissioner seat, Dancila replied that he is, “but there can be others, as well”.

“Mihai Fifor is a suitable candidate, there can be other candidates, too, we’ll discuss today so that we can come up with a proposal”, Dancila said during her visit to Ploiesti where she attended the opening ceremony of the academic year.

Also questioned if she would rather prefer a woman for this position, she said: “I would like to be a woman, for you saw the President-elect of the European Commission had said she would like to have a gender-balanced commission, so a woman would be desirable, but it is not mandatory“.

Sources revealed that Mihai Fifor, but also Mihai Negrescu, are on the PM’s short list for commissioner.

On the other hand, other sources told local mass media that the president-elect of the EC, Ursula von der Leyen , would have asked PM Dancila to talk to President Klaus Iohannis on the commissioner issue and to forward a new nomination to Brussels only after the designated person is heard in the Parliament’s special committees.

President Iohannis has called Dancila for talks at Cotroceni in this regard, but the prime minister denied the invitation.

Liberal chairman Ludovic Orban has slammed Mihai Fifor, saying he cannot be Romania’s proposal for the EC Commissioner, as he is “a curator at the most” who has not participated in any archaeological find. Orban also said that the prime minister must nominate “an impeccable person”, not some neophyte ones such as Nicolae Bădălău or Dănuț Andrușcă.