Foreign Affairs future minister Teodor Baconschi, approved by parliamentary commissions

Teodor Baconschi was proposed to be the Foreign Affairs minister in the latest Boc Cabinet. He was approved by the parliamentary commissions with 33 votes in favour, 15 against and one abstention. But the hearing was not a walk in the park: Baconschi faced tough issues raised by PSD parliamentarians, who reminded him of the dubious elections organised at the embassy in Paris and of a possible anti-Semite orientation of the new minister.

Teodor Baconschi started his discourse by presenting his career. Among several things, he mentioned having been ambassador to Vatican and having „a modest contribution” in Pope John Paul second visit to Romania. During his time as Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE) state secretary, he was chief of the Romanian delegation in the agreement sealed for granting Americans military facilities in Romania. „This allied presence was able to send a message addressing Romania’s firm presence in the North-Atlantic security structures”, he said. As ambassador to Paris, he took part in the set-up and selling the Romanian-French strategic partnership, marking Romania’s joining the EU.

• Teodor Baconschi was ambassador under three Romanian presidents. He believes that the partnership with France helped Romania obtain an important portfolio in the Barroso II EC. According to him, he wants to give the Romanian diplomatic staff back its prestige. He wants Romania to be more active in the EU and NATO and he also considers that Romania needs to look with a fresh perspective at all its neighbours. „Together with them, we share a regional destiny, where we have the right to play a visible role”.

• „I’m thinking of taking advantage of the new political context in the Republic of Moldova as well, to encourage this neighbouring state’s European vocation and to become a democratic ideas supplier for the new executive in Chisinau, just like Poland co-initiated the Eastern Partnership with Sweden and became Ukraine’s main sponsor; this is what we should become for Chisinau. We hope to designate a new ambassador for the region as soon as possible, and low border traffic – in its agreement phase – to reach the Parliament for debates”, Baconschi added.

• ‘We’ve got a series of strategic partnerships. I mentioned the US relationships within the EU, a strategic partnership with France. I’m thinking it would be good to finalise the two projects – with Poland and with Turkey.”

• „We’ll soon have to find solutions for the Black Sea synergy project, a project that has not been approved yet, to not signal in vain.

• Regarding Romanians overseas, Baconschi considers them „an essential partner”, who should not be served populist dishes and believes the cash machine thieves should not be treated as heroes. He added that MAE will continue to support the Romanian church overseas.

• Talking about European matters, Baconschi believes that the Lisbon Treaty and the new Foreign Affairs service will cut part of the Romanian quality diplomats. „For 2010, we have an issue still sensitive addressing the justice cooperation and checking system. I promise you I will work closely with Mr. Predoiu so that, on the basis of some real progress, this mechanism is implemented. Croatia is on its accession way, does not consider this mechanism and we would be left with an ideological burden. We’ve been informed that our Bulgarian partners are allegedly preparing to request the preservation of this mechanism, and preserving of lifting the mechanism is done in a package”, he added.

• Asked to explain why he decided to extend the voting opening hours in Paris on December 6 and how he managed to bring 3,000 Romanians to vote so quickly, re received the „unfounded accusations”, claiming that the Romanian Central Electoral Office requested that the Romanian citizens queuing to vote after 9 pm were escorted out of the embassy using the French Police. „The French police hasn’t got the right to enter foreign embassies and it acts as it should, only against criminals”, Baconschi said, adding that a PSD member sent BEC a petition with the same accusations, a petition rejected by BEC.

• Addressing anti-Semitism suspicions, he claimed that his father died surrounded by Jewish friends and that the Romanian embassy in lodged the Hanukah celebration.

• On The Romanian relation with Russia, he reiterated the Moldovan issue, adding: „We have oscillated between a more or less politically instrumented Russiaphobia and the attempt to get over the judicial issues by overpricing a pragmatic rhetoric: let’s make business, let’s attract investors. I followed the way in which the Russian diplomacy managed to reposition itself under Mr. Lavrov leadership, while we had five ministers over the same period of time. Ni-laterally, I will do everything rational and reasonable to re-launch this extremely important relationship, because we cannot ignore Russia, but Russia cannot ignore that the EU and NATO’s Eastern border is Romania”.