President Basescu was asked today, by a journalist in Brussels, how he would cope with the loss of a European Commissioner in case the Lisbon Treaty does not entry into force. It’s well-known there are reform plans on reducing the number of European commissioner from the current 27. Romania’s on the potential losers’ list in case this reform is applied. Thus, the journalist’s question is highly interesting, contentious and smart. And yet the president refuses to answer it, adding that “I believe this question is below minimum intelligence standards”…

Pardon my French… but like, WTF/H???? How can you do that? How can we then take for serious his rather intelligent remarks on other EU issues, such as the need for member states to ratify the treaty, the need to focus on the Western Balkans as potential targets for enlargement, and so on. How can we hope to achieve active European citizenship absent of continuous education for all on EU issues?

I’m numb. I’m really numb. For Romanian speakers, Vlad Petreanu wrote a crisp entry on the subjects. You can also watch the video of the president’s intervention here.

Later edit: The question (I just watched it now) was a technical mistake, as the journalist mistook the Lisbon treaty for the Nice Treaty. Anyhow, the issue of reducing the number of commissioners is still valid, and Basescu’s reaction really unappropriate.