About: Dacian Cioloş
Time to rethink EU democracy
To regain people’s trust in democracy, we need to fundamentally revisit the way our democracies work. The Conference on the Future of Europe is a chance to update the way Brussels does politics, write Guy Verhofstadt and Dacian Cioloș.
Liberal leader Hans van Baalen dies aged 60
Hans van Baalen, ALDE Party President, passed away in the late hours of 29 April at the age of 60 after a short illness, his party central announced on Friday (30 April).
Trouble brews in Macron’s Renew as EU Parliament power shift looms
Trouble is brewing in Renew Europe, the third-largest group in the European Parliament, pitting the old 'liberals and democrats' of ALDE against the group leadership and the French delegation of Emmanuel Macron's party, according to an insider source in the centrist group.
Renew Europe expels Lithuanian MEP over homophobic remarks
Centrist European Parliament grouping Renew Europe on Wednesday (20 January) voted to expel a Lithuanian MEP over homophobic remarks he made in a video on Facebook.
Lithuanian MEP apologises in homophobia row
A Lithuanian MEP accused of homophobia apologised on Wednesday (13 January) after fellow lawmakers threatened to expel him from the liberal Renew grouping in the European Parliament.
Lithuanian MEP told to explain homophobic remarks
A Lithuanian MEP whose Facebook page features a video of him calling gays or transvestites "perverts" has been given until Thursday (14 January) to explain and apologise if he wants to stay in his political group.
Sassoli shows his differences with von der Leyen over Hungary
European Parliament President David Sassoli has asked the European Commission to assess whether the new laws introduced in Hungary under the disguise of coronavirus emergency comply with the most important text of EU treaties, he said late on Tuesday (31 March).
EU foreign ministers promise more humanitarian aid to Syria
The EU is willing to provide more money for migrants stranded in Turkey, but Ankara must refrain from using them as a bargaining chip, the bloc's foreign ministers announced after an extraordinary meeting about the crisis in Syria's northwestern Idlib province, held in Zagreb on Friday (6 March).
Renew Europe vows to break ‘taboos’ in EU agriculture
The centrist Renew Europe group in the European Parliament aims to “break taboos” in the agricultural sector, according to one of its Czech deputies, Martin Hlaváček.
Ciolos: Europe’s Green Deal is an opportunity for renewal and reinvention
The Green Deal communication by the European Commission is a priority initiative, which must mark the opening chapter for a transformational project. The aim of this project is to deliver prosperity and a brighter, cleaner future for our continent, writes Dacian Cioloș.
Finland aims to put €10bn more in CAP’s second pillar
Finland's presidency proposed an EU’s seven-year budget that leaves allocations for direct payments and market measures as they were set up in Common Agricultural Policy's Commission proposal, adding €10 billion of fresh money in the rural development funds.
Ciolos: We need strong majority for a ‘Renewed’ Europe
For the first time, the centre-right EPP and the Socialists no longer have a working majority on their own in the European Parliament. This new reality alone is a chance for change in Europe, writes Dacian Cioloș who will host a pre-EU summit meeting today of European centrist and liberal parties.
Commissioner-nominees Trocsanyi and Plumb face grilling over personal finances
European lawmakers on Wednesday (25 September) asked the Romanian and Hungarian EU commissioner nominees to face a grilling over potential conflicts of interest and discrepancies in property statements.
Romania ruling coalition collapses as junior partner quits
Romania's ruling coalition collapsed Monday (26 August) when the junior partner announced it was pulling out in the latest setback to the governing Social Democrats two months before a presidential election.
Bulgarian EPP deputy: Don’t take vote for Ursula von der Leyen for granted
Part of the centre-right European People's Party (EPP) has serious doubts about Ursula von der Leyen’s nomination for President of the European Commission and may not support her, Bulgarian MEP Radan Kanev told news website EUelectionsBulgaria.com.
MEPs shut out nationalists from key posts
MEPs from the nationalist Identity and Democracy (ID) group have been excluded from the last EU key posts left in parliamentary committees. Hungary's Fidesz and Poland's Law and Justice have also been partially subjected to the cordon sanitaire imposed by the pro-European majority.
EU country briefing: Romania
The following article is a part of a series of brief country profiles for the EU-28 ahead of the European elections in May. Romania, together with Bulgaria, missed the first wave of the EU’s eastward expansion in 2004. The two joined the...
If you can’t beat them, ban them: Romanian electoral bureau rejects Ciolos’s alliance
The Central Electoral Bureau (BEC) rejected on Thursday (7 March) the joint application for the European elections of the “Alliance 2020 USR PLUS”. The news had the effect of a bomb in Romania, writes Dan Alexe, who runs a blog called EUelectionsRomania.com.
Campaign leader: +Plus party is much more than the person of Dacian Ciolos
The new Romanian party, +Plus, founded by former EU Commissioner Dacian Cioloș, is in talks to run for the European elections in coalition with the Save Romania Union (USR), the new force's campaign leader told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview.
Dacian Ciolos: ‘We need to show Romanians that politics is not the mafia’
As Romania prepares to hold the rotating EU presidency at the start of 2019, EURACTIV met with Dacian Cioloș. The former prime minister and agriculture Commissioner has just set up a party in Romania similar to Emmanuel Macron's En Marche, with one eye on the European elections.
Romania’s former EU Commissioner starts new political party
Romania's former EU Agriculture Commissioner, Dacian Cioloș, who also briefly headed a technocratic government in 2016, has started a new political party just as the country gears up for presidential elections next year and parliamentary elections in 2020.
Dan Barna: Save Romania Union similar to Macron’s En Marche
Dan Barna, President of Save Romania Union (USR), told EURACTIV in an exclusive interview that his force, which largely represents educated urban voters, could join the European political family of Emmanuel Macron’s La République En Marche! party.
Thousands of Romanians rally against ruling party’s judicial overhaul
Tens of thousands of Romanians rallied in the capital Bucharest and dozens of other cities on Sunday (26 November), protesting against a widely criticised plan by the ruling Social Democrats to overhaul the judiciary.