The ALDE Bureau must be focused on protecting our liberal way of life which has been under attack both from outside and from inside Europe. In the past years, all of us have seen how extremist parties or populist leaders attempted to destabilize the very foundations of the European Union.

I want us, through the Party Bureau and through well-planned programs of aiding our member parties, to stand firm and provide the means of winning elections in our countries, or of being relevant enough to set the national political agendas and be part of coalition governments.

We must shore up support for European integration, by reconnecting with the citizens and with the members of our political parties. For far too long we have been stuck in our technical and bureaucratic way of communicating with the people, which often led to our voters' morale wavering and them losing their enthusiasm.

When it comes to the overall distrust of the people in national or European leadership, we cannot blame them for buying into fear rhetoric.

Instead, it is up to us to hear them and provide solutions to the causes of their fears.

Many of them are legitimate, and we cannot allow extremists and populists to win based on that. We must solve the problems which we face now and which will arise in the future within the democratic framework we have. But before that, we must be prepared internally.

My main interest is helping our member parties to achieve electoral success. Beyond delivering tooltips to our member parties which can aid them in their campaigns and putting at their disposal a number of trainers and programs.

I propose we invest heavily in the next generation of people who will help advance our liberal agenda. Both as political leaders and specialists.

ALDE can be a network through which we can map talent among the political membership - young and old, active or retired, we must provide our members with the ability to make an impact in their communities, by sharing and scaling best practices and success stories of each of our party members and organizations. These are also the ideas I am working to include in our ALDE Manifesto for 2024, as part of the coordinating committee for the writing process of the document.

The task at hand is simple to point at but challenging - maintaining our position in our countries and in the European Parliament. We must prepare to hold our ground in the next European elections. And we must use our biggest asset - which is our party members, as effectively as possible. Our connection to them and our ability to make them agents of change in their communities will be the key to our success. This is what I propose for us, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats.

I am Romanian, I am a husband, father and I am a politician.

My whole career and aspirations were and are linked to the European project and the benefits provided to each of us by the EU community.

As a business entrepreneur, I created in 2007 the first Romanian online platform (www.fonduri-structurale.ro) where entrepreneurs and NGOs could get complete and thorough information about how to access European funds and the momentum they could provide for their organizations.

I have twice been elected Member of Parliament for Sibiu, my home county, and have developed a strong bond with the citizens I represent. In recent months, I have personally helped family doctors in my constituency to access funds to modernize their medical offices from the Recovery and Resilience Plan.

In my first mandate, I was Vice-President of the Committee on Foreign Policy and a member of the Committee on European Affairs. Now, in my second mandate, I am Vice-President of the Romanian Parliament, and my responsibilities include representing the Parliament in relation to foreign delegations. In this capacity, I had meetings with representatives of Algeria, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan on the energy security of the European Union and Romania's role in the European energy chain. I am also the President of the Romanian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

From my first governmental experience as a technocrat State Secretary in the Ministry of European Funds in 2016 to the position of Deputy Prime Minister in the Romanian Government in 2021, my personal conviction that Romania can and deserves more has been the driving force behind my political rise.

In 5 years as President of USR, I led the party's rise from opposition to government. Together with the ministers I coordinated, we set the standard for good governance in Romania. I oversaw the portfolios of Transport, Health, Justice, Economy, and European Funds, at the height of the social tension generated by the Covid-19 waves. One of the achievements of our time in government was working with the Commission in negotiating and getting approved the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Romania, one which was considered by the EC as one of the most consistent in Europe. With a reformist agenda, we made it clear that Europe is not just an ideal, but a reality we can call home.

I am now Vice President of USR, part of a united team for Romania's progress, and fully committed to our European future.