Prime Minister Viorica Dancila announced that she wants to “speed up” the relations between the Government and the European Commission, which must be “informed correctly and in time”.
“I have this certainty that we, as the Government, have to focus on the European dimension. This means speeding up the relations we have with the European Commission. The European Commission must be informed correctly and in time, and I believe this will lead to positive results in terms of governing,” Dancila said on Sunday in a telephone interview at Romania TV.
She said that frequent meetings with European officials and “timely and correct” information prevent Brussels from receiving “false information” and creating “a wrong perception” about Romania.
“I think that good information, a good relationship with Brussels can bring added value both in terms of the absorption of European funds, on European projects, but also as far as we are concerned, in order to know the real situation and no longer have situations where Romania was put in the position to be judged by other member states only on the grounds of disinformation by people of bad faith,” Dancila said.
At the same time, the head of the Government said he would be very involved in this collaboration with European officials.
“I will get involved a great deal in the collaboration with Brussels. It is normal. I will try to speak with all the Commissioners, but first of all with the President of the European Commission [Jean-Claude Juncker], with President Tusk [President of the European Council – Donald Tusk], but also with the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani,” Dancila said.
She also said she aims to increase the absorption rate of European funds.
“Romania has a European absorption rate of 12.29%. We are on the 16th place out of 28, below the European average of 13.8%. We have behind us strong countries such as France, Germany, Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, but of course, our goal is not to have a comparative policy, but (…) to make every effort to increase the absorption rate, so that in 2020 we will reach 72.5%, and in 2023 (…) to reach 100%,” Dancila said.
“Dragnea, Tariceanu and I will assess each minister’s activity on a monthly basis”
Prime Minister Viorica Dancila announced that the activity of each minister in her Cabinet will be assessed on a monthly basis, together with the leaders of the Social Democrat Party (PSD) – the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats (ALDE) coalition, Liviu Dragnea and Calin Popescu Tariceanu.
“Each month, together with the two chairmen, Mr Liviu Dragnea and Mr Calin Popescu Tariceanu, we shall have an assessment of the activity of each minister. (…) We’ll make analyses for each ministry. (…) We’ll make these assessments taking into account the deadlines, the implementing of the governance programme. Therefore the analyses will also be made inside the ruling coalition, as it is natural,” Dancila said on Sunday in a telephone intervention on Romania TV private television broadcaster.
According to the PM, the collaboration between the Government and the ruling coalition will be a “natural one.”
“The collaboration is natural, we’ll have weekly meetings, we’ll have briefings, therefore a very close collaboration, because this way, as I have said from the first minute, we are a political government, we are a PSD-ALDE Government,” Dancila showed.
At the same time, she pointed out that, at present, inside the Government, analyses are being conducted on the stage of the projects that must be implemented this year.
“I have already started to meet with each minister to discuss the very important problems, and I mean the stage of investments and projects which the ministers must implement in 2018 or which are under implementation, the European funds, the situation of which each ministry, (…) the stage of transposing the European directives in the Romanian legislation,” Dancila said.
She pointed out that she has also discussed with the members of her Cabinet about the stage of preparing the takeover of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, as well as about the stage of filing projects within the Centennial Programme.
“At the Government, we could say that we took a power start and are working very, very seriously,” Viorica Dancila also said.
