President Iohannis:Romania to buy, on behalf of EU, protective medical equipment and ventilators of max. 10M euro

Romania will buy, on behalf on the European Union, protective medical equipment and ventilators for setting up a strategic reserve on the territory of our county within the limit of 10 million euro, President Klaus Iohannis has stated on Thursday.

"At European level, it has been decided, based on a project approved during our Presidency at the Council of the European Union, the setting up of a strategic medical equipment reserve, within the European Civil Protection Mechanism, a European mechanism designed so that the European Union can prevent, prepare and respond to various crises and disasters, such as the epidemic we are confronted with. It is very important, Romania is the first European Union member state that received the accept of the European Commission to start the necessary acquisition procedures to establish this reserve of the European Union on our country's territory. In a first stage, the acquisition carried out by Romania, on behalf of the European Union, within the limit of 10 million euro, is aimed at protective medical equipment - masks and individual protection suits - and ventilators. This procedure is carried out independently from the purchases made directly by the Commission, but when these materials will are available, we too, in Romania, will be able to request a part of this strategic reserve," Iohannis explained at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace.

He showed that he will present within the videoconference with European Council members, to be held on Thursday, Romania's efforts within this project, announcing that the discussions with the suppliers have already begun.

"I will ask a more consistent funding on this programme and I will show Romania's availability to also get involved more in other areas of this mechanism. On a different note, I will convey to our partners in the Union that we need functional chains of supply in order to ensure the appropriate access of our citizens to the essential goods, and for this, the barriers in the supply chains should be eliminated and other blockages prevented," the head of state said.

He underscored that it is important that the joint acquisition procedures of equipment and medical devices necessary to manage the epidemic be completed as soon as possible, so that the interested member states be able to quickly take possession of these products.