Minister-delegate Negrescu meets Lambertz and Oettinger; meeting agenda includes analyses of current EU files

Minister-delegate for European Affairs Victor Negrescu on Tuesday carried out meetings with President of the European Committee for the Regions Karl-Heinz Lambertz and European Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources Gunther Oettinger, who are currently paying a visit to Bucharest, with discussions focusing on an analysis of the EU files of interest, considering that Romania is preparing to take over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union. 

Thus, the agenda of the meeting with Karl-Heinz Lambertz included the development of the process of preparation for Romania to take over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the presentation of aspects of interest for our country, from the perspective of cooperating with the European Committee of Regions, and details with respect to the European Summit of Regions and Cities, which will take place in Bucharest over March 14-15, 2019. 

In this context, the Minister-delegate reviewed the four thematic pillars of the working agenda of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU, which are about an "Europe of convergence: growth, cohesion, competitiveness, connectivity," "Europe of safety," "Europe, global player" and "Europe of common values." 

"We firmly support a cohesive Union, based on the fundamental values and on the adoption of a citizen-oriented approach. In our efforts to build a stronger European Union, it's important to go back to the fundamental concepts of the European construction. This project is based, first of all, on cohesion - between the member states, between regions and citizens. Thus, we appreciate the role of the European Committee for Regions in communicating the point of views of the local and regional authorities," stated Negrescu, quoted in the release. 

The same source mentioned that, at the meeting with Gunther Oettinger, the Minister-delegate underscored that the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the EU will make all the efforts to finalize and, depending on the case, to substantially push the negotiations forward on as many priority files as possible at the European level, while paying attention to the quality of the compromises and focusing on reaching an agreement in due time. 

"We count on the European Commission's support in the efforts that the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union intends to make in order to advance the European agenda in the first six months of next year. We fully share the Commission's assessment regarding the importance of adopting the European budget in due time, as a foundation for continuing efforts to reach the objectives of the Union, and Romania, through the responsible institutions, is ready to manage the file of the new multi-annual financial framework of the European Union aimed at ensuring, during Romania's mandate, a fast pace of the works at the level of the Council, according to the level of ambition of the member states," stated Victor Negrescu, according to the release.