Graham Watson MEP
Liberal Democrat Member of the European Parliament for South West England and Gibraltar
A local champion with an international reputation
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Speech by ELDR President Sir Graham Watson MEP, European Parliament chamber, Strasbourg, 12th September 2012
Published on Wednesday 19th September 2012
SPEECH ON ROMANIA BY ELDR PARTY PRESIDENT SIR GRAHAM WATSON MEP, EP STRASBOURG, 12 SEPTEMBER 2012
Romania provides a case study of the trials of transition from communism. A President alleged to have been a member of the Securitate: a political class so fearful of the files that they failed to publish the past; a culture which, twenty years on, has still not shaken off all the corruption of communism.
From this recent episode no party, the European Union included, emerges with much credit.
Commissioner Reding, this was not in any sense a 'coup d'etat', even - in your phrase - a 'parliamentary coup d'etat'.