Traian Basescu, the Romanian incumbent president, is to be blamed for the fact that Adrian Severin was not elected EU's Foreign Affairs minister. This is the statement of the Social-Democratic Party National Council president Adrian Nastase for RFI. The ex-Prime Minister claims that the European socialist did not receive support from the chief of state in order to become a High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs.

"It is obvious that Adrian Severin did not have Traian Basescu's support and this is a strongly negative detail, it is blameable from a national interest point of view", Nastase stated.

The ex-Prime-Minister underlined that other countries knew how to lobby for themselves to obtain important roles in the European and international institutions.

"Bulgaria managed to impose the UNESCO general manager, Poland succeeded to impose the European Parliament speaker", Adrian Nastase said.

"20 years after, Romania is incapable of negotiating its own interests and participates only in unanimities and consensus formulas, like the ones from last night. I believe this is sad and shows us Traian Basescu's incapacity to lobby efficiently for Romania and for the Romanian candidates", the PSD National Council president concludes.

Adrian Severin was one of the runner-ups for the EU Foreign Affairs minister role. The job went to Brit Catherine Ashton, European commissioner for Commerce. The Belgian PM Herman Van Rompuy was elected in the new role of president of the European Council.