President Iohannis rejects Lia Olguta Vasilescu's appointment as Minister of Development

President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday sent a letter to Prime Minister Viorica Dancila informing her of his decision to reject the appointment of Lia Olguta Vasilescu as Deputy PM, Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration. 

I decided to reject the proposal to appoint Lia Olguta Vasilescu as Deputy PM, Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration, reads the letter. 

The head of state asked the PM to make another proposal for the respective office. 

"Therefore, according to the provisions of art. 85 paragraph (2) of the Constitution and considering the jurisprudence of the Constitutional Court you need to make a new proposal for the office of Deputy PM, Minister of Regional Development and Public Administration, to meet the criteria established by the law and also the requirements regarding the general training and experience in the respective field of activity, skills, clean reputation and morality," said Iohannis. 

The President explained he rejected the appointment of Lia Olguta Vasilescu as Minister of Development for she didn't have the necessary training and experience for this field. 

"After analyzing the activity of the person whose name was proposed, as resulting from the documentation I received, I saw that Mrs Lia Olguta Vasilescu does not have the necessary training in any of the fields corresponding to the activity of the Ministry she is supposed to lead. Moreover, the same documentation shows that Mrs Lia Olguta Vasilescu does not have the necessary experience to promote and manage public policies at national level in the complex field of regional development and public administration. In her capacity as city mayor, Mrs Lia Olguta Vasilescu did not promote or manage public policies at national level, while in her capacity as MP she only activated in such parliamentary committees that, through their object of activity, were directly related either to her professional training, which is culture, art and mass information means, either related to her experience as Minister in the labour and social protection field," he argued. 

According to the head of the state, in her capacity as Labour Minister, Vasilescu promoted a "lack of transparency" in the relation with the civil society and in the social dialogue process and made a series of "controversial" statements.