An undersecretary of the Agriculture Ministry, Dacian Ciolos, accepted on Thursday evening to take over the seat of Agriculture minister Decebal Traian Remes who resigned earlier today after the public television’s decision to broadcast footage on Wednesday evening that depicted him allegedly taking bribe.

A Government spokeswoman said the name of the future minister nominee would be made public on Friday. Other names that were circulated on Thursday as possible successors for Remes were Liberals Dan Radu Rusanu and Ilie Bolojan.

The European Commission said on Thursday that it was not interested in the name of the future Agriculture minister, but in a good functioning of the Agriculture Ministry. Romania was warned by the EC on Wednesday that it risked the activation of a safeguard clause preventing it from receiving farming aid unless it solved a series of problems with its farming payments system within a month.

Dacian Ciolos is not a member of the governing National Liberal Party but was considered to be a proper candidate given his experience in the field of agriculture and contacts with EU bodies in the sector.

Government spokeswoman Camelia Spataru said on Thursday his main objective for the near future would be to solve the payments issue as fast as possible.