Two of the European Parliament’s largest groups have joined forces to urge the European Commission to consider freezing 770 million euros in funds earmarked for Romania, warning that the money could “inadvertently contribute to undermining Romanian democracy.” The centre-right European People’s Party and the liberal Renew Europe group made the appeal in a letter to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
At the centre of the dispute is a newly approved Romanian law on integrity in public office. Manfred Weber and Valerie Hayer, who lead the two groups, argue that the legislation could be used to remove Dominic Fritz, the mayor of Timisoara and leader of the Save Romania Union, over a past conflict-of-interest case. Fritz, a German national first elected six years ago, was found last year to have been involved in an administrative conflict of interest tied to a 2020 urban planning document.
The contested provision, introduced by Romania’s Socialist Party, would terminate within 30 days the mandates of officials with a final conflict-of-interest finding whose three-year sanction period has not expired. Weber and Hayer say applying the amendment retroactively would breach both Romanian and EU law, and accuse the Socialists and the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians of instrumentalising the measure. Public statements by senior figures in both parties, they wrote, “leave no doubt that the amendment was specifically designed to target a single individual.”
The two leaders called on the Commission to make “unequivocally clear” that EU money is conditional on respect for the rule of law, and urged the Romanian Parliament to reconsider the bill. A Commission spokesperson said the letter had been received and that “the integrity law will be assessed as part of the last payment request.” The money comes from the EU’s post-pandemic Recovery and Resilience Facility, and Romania must complete a set of reforms by the end of August to access it.
Behind the standoff lies a deeper crisis in a country run by an interim government amid mounting fragmentation. The Socialists brought down the previous centre-right coalition through a no-confidence vote, and an unusual alignment of left-leaning and nationalist forces could now form a new government. The Socialist delegation in the European Parliament called it unacceptable to take domestic disputes to Brussels at the risk of Romania’s finances, insisting that “no party interest and no politician can be more important than European funds intended for Romanians.”
