Mircea GEOANA : "Bien sûr que je serai présent à la prochaine présidentielle en Roumanie"

[Music] Hello, thank you Johanna. You are an opponent of President Basec in Romania. You faced him in the last presidential election and were defeated by 49.66% of the vote; in other words, it was a very close call. You are now the President of the Senate. What do you say about the situation in your country,

Romania, in the current economic crisis? Unfortunately, Romania remains among the countries that have not yet emerged from the economic recession, and that is painful. The socio- economic costs are very significant in Romania. Yes, unfortunately, my country did not have the resources for a whole host of measures to stimulate the economy, and we

only implemented austerity. Unfortunately, austerity hit the most vulnerable segments of our society very hard. Even if exports, even if industrial production has recovered, domestic demand is still very weak, and that is why Romania remains in recession. This is truly the 7th most populated country in Europe, right at the heart of this Europe in crisis, one

might say. In a way, how do you experience your place in Europe today? It's a very complex process, and I fear, as a Romanian and as a convinced European, that we risk having a Europe of four different speeds. We see, uh, in economic governance, the hard zone of the Eurozone putting forward ambitious projects, and I believe that's a

positive thing, but at the same time, we see a divide between the old and new members of the European Union. We see the British, uh, having a distinct position, and we also see, on the problem of the Schengen Area, uh, another potential divide. Too many divides, that's not good for the European project. Yes, so I believe that we