MAE: Romania took over Council of European Union presidency at the General Affairs Council

Minister-delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba on Tuesday officially took over the rotating presidency of the Council of European Union at the end of the meeting of foreign affairs ministers held in Brussels. 

An important item on the agenda of the GAC was the Multi-annual Financial Framework 2021-2027, in preparation for the debate of European leaders at the European Council scheduled on December 13-14, 2018. 

In his speech, Ciamba appreciated the efforts made by the Austrian presidency in this file, underscoring that Romania is ready to maintain the same path of discussions to lead to congress progresses being achieved during its mandate, reads a release of the MAE (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) sent to AGERPRES. 

Also, they highlighted the need for the new Union budget to be at the same time ambitious and balanced and to reflect both the necessity to continue to support the growth and convergence objectives, as well as the necessity to offer an efficient answer to the current challenges. Moreover, the Minister-delegate emphasized on the fact that the substantial advance of negotiations in this file depends, to a great extent, on the constructive commitment of all member states and European institutions. 

Moreover, in preparation for the meeting of the European Council in December, the ministers for European Affairs also approached the other items on the leaders' agenda, with emphasis on such aspects related to the internal market, migration, Economic and Monetary Union and external relations of the Union. 

About the European Council's agenda, Ciamba underscored that it's important the European Council to send a strong message in supporting the Internal Market's consolidation efforts and highlighted the principles on which a post-2020 vision of the Internal Market should rely upon, the preservation of the fundamental liberties, the elimination of the barriers, while increasing the reaction capacity to digital challenges. 

Moreover, the Minister-delegate also referred to the need for continuing efforts for a comprehensive approach of the migration phenomenon, starting from the objectives adopted at the European Council in June 2018, while also voicing Romania's willingness to continue the previous presidencies' efforts made in this file. He underscored the importance of discussions with respect to the recent developments in the Azov Sea, as well as the measures meant for combating disinformation, with the latter aspect representing a priority on the agenda of the Romanian presidency of the Council of EU. 

"Moreover, the ministers had an exchange of views on the following topics: the 2019 European Semester, with emphasis on the elements from the Annual growth Analysis published by the European Commission, the rule of law state in Poland and the Union values-Hungary, as well as the results of the Conference on the subsidiarity, carried out over November 15-16 2018, in Bregenz, Austria," mentions the release. 

At the meeting, they formally adopted, without any debate, the conclusions of the Council of EU with respect to the European Commission's reports on Romania and Bulgaria under the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification, published on November 13, 2018, with conclusions to be technically agreed upon later.