EU Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy Stefan Fule was in Bucharest yesterday, meeting with FM Titus Corlatean, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Senate, Mircea Geoana, and was seen by President Traian Basescu.
European Commissioner for Enlargement and Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Fule, said in a joint statement with FM Titus Corlatean yesterday that there would be no wall for R. of Moldova at the end of the Eastern Partnership regarding the option of becoming a member state of the European Union. He pointed out that ‘R. of Moldova is a success story’ because it has made progress consisting in concrete results over a short period of time, with the support of the European Commission. ‘We have agreed that we need success stories and R. of Moldova is such a good story. They have been capable of offering concrete result-oriented progress over a short period of time,’ said the EU commissioner. Fule, who visited Bucharest at FM Corlatean’s invitation, also noted that, beyond the EU economic and financial hardships, it must not be forgotten that deepening integration and enlargement were two processes that belonged to the DNA of the Union. Corlatean thanked Commissioner Fule for his approach to R. of Moldova, also mentioning Romania’s interest in the EU enlargement with South Eastern Europe countries. ‘We find that enlargement must remain one of the EU foreign policy priorities in spite of the pressing issues the Union is facing. Keeping South Eastern European states in the attention of the EU is the key to obtaining results on the reform agenda,’ said the Romanian chief diplomat, quoted by Mediafax. He reiterated the importance of fulfilling political accession criteria by all candidate countries, adding the attention given by Romania to the respect for the rights of national minorities and mentioning Serbia as an example in that respect. He also referred to Albania: ‘Here, too, we expressed our interest in that the situation of Aromanian minority is treated at European standards by Albanian authorities,’ said the minister. The head of diplomacy also reminded that ‘Romania rests an active supporter of Ukraine’s European aspirations.’ During his meeting with European Commissioner Stefan Fule, President Basescu said the approach to the principle of justice monitoring in the EU was uneven, pointing out there were member states ‘in more precarious situations in that respect than Romania’s’, and still they were not under a similar monitoring mechanism.According to a Presidential Administration release, during the talks, the two officials assessed the prospects of EU membership of the countries currently conducting accession talks. The European commissioner also met up with the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Senate, Mircea Geoana, yesterday. According to Geoana, Stefan Fule suggested that, irrespective of the political composition of the future parliament, Romanian political forces should take the necessary measures locally so that the CVM became history on July 1, 2013. Stefan Fule in turn said, in his opinion, the most important thing was that countries like Romania were ready to support the Commission come up with a new way in which it could be sure that Cooperation and Verifications Mechanisms were no longer necessary, because the system makes candidate states be 100 per cent ready to assume the obligations required for becoming EU members. ‘We discussed how important it is, despite the current financial crisis, to continue the process of enlargement (EU), because that, alongside the deepening of integration, has been a part of the DNA of the European Union ever since its beginnings,’ said the European official. The chairman of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee also noted that the underachievements of Romania and of the Governments in Bucharest should not be used as a pretext for stopping the EU enlargement. The senator stressed the fact that Romania had resisted the temptation to use its veto as a member state when Croatia had been invited to become an EU member, although the country did not have a cooperation and verification mechanism in the area of justice and fight against corruption as Romania and Bulgaria did. Geoana added that Romania had also not used its veto right when Serbia had been invited to have accession talks, although Belgrade did not respect the rights of Romanian minorities in Vojvodina and Timoc Valley.
