President Klaus Iohannis on Thursday and Friday is set to pay an official visit to Brussels to meet the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, and also the NATO Secretary General, Jens Stoltenberg.
According to the Presidential Administration, Iohannis is going to have talks on Thursday with Doland Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, and, on Friday, with Jens Stoltenberg. Moreover, he will hold joint press conferences with Juncker and Stoltenberg.
Iohannis has already met Tusk, Juncker and Stoltenberg at the Solidarity March in Paris on Sunday, but his visit to Brussels will offer him the opportunity to carry official talks with these outstanding European decision-makers on crucial issues related to Romania’s relationship with the EU and NATO.
The current stage of European funds’ absorption by Romania as well as solutions to improve the absorption rate, but also Romania’s progress in the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) will top the agenda of talks to be held by President Iohannis with the European Union high officials.
On the other hand, the meeting of President Iohannis with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg is to take place just days after in Bucharest all political forces expressed consensus and signed a pact on increasing the Defence budget to 2 per cent of the GDP which shows Romania’s full commitment to implement the decisions of the NATO Summit in Wales.
Iohannis: A visit to emphasize the importance Romania attaches to its European profile
Before leaving to Brussels, the president said this working visit to Brussels, to the European and Euro-Atlantic institutions, is his first visit abroad since the beginning of his term as president and that is made to emphasize the importance Romania attaches to its European profile as EU and NATO member state.
The President said that he would meet the Presidents of the Commission and European Council as well as the NATO Secretary General. “In the discussions, I will address topics of interest for Romania in its relations with EU and NATO institutions,” said the president. He mentioned that Romania is in its eighth year of EU membership.”Our institutions are strengthened and our contribution to the European project must be one to match this. A priority of my mandate is to deepen the European integration, I will clearly convey this message to Brussels. We will discuss the steps that Romania should make for this full integration and to take up better the role of NATO membership,” Iohannis pointed out in a press statement at Henri Conada International Airport, prior to his departure to Brussels.
The presidential advisers Dan Mihalache, George Scutaru, Leonard Orban, Cosmin Marinescu, Andrei Muraru and Tatiana Niculescu-Bran – the head of state’s spokesperson, Mihai-Razvan Ungureanu – the president’s personal adviser, and the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Nicolae Ciuca, are part of the delegation accompanying the president.
