#Romania2019.eu/Romania marks its taking over the presidency of the Council of EU with a ceremony at the Athenaeum

Romania marks on Thursday its taking over the presidency of the Council of the European Union through a ceremony organised at the Romanian Athenaeum, to be attended by the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, the President of the European Parliament, Antonio Tajani, the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk, and Romania's Prime Minister Viorica Dancila. 

All the four dignitaries will deliver speeches before the inaugural concert to take place on the stage of the Athenaeum. 

The concert will be performed by the European Union Orchestra, made of musicians from the 28 EU states and internationally renowned Romanian artists, such as Adela Zaharia, Ruxandra Donose, Michael Konig, Sorin Colban and the Choir of the "George Enescu" Philharmonic. The conductor of the concert will be Ion Marin, while the choir is coordinated by Ion Iosif Prunner. 

Another inaugural concert for the Romanian Presidency of the Council of EU will be held in Brussels, on January 24, at the Bozar Centre. On that occasion, the Romanian Youth Orchestra led by Cristian Mandeal will present a repertoire including works by George Enescu, Theodor Rogalski, Grigoras Dinicu, George Grigoriu and Eugen Doga. 

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila stated that the official launch of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of EU takes place in two symbolic buildings for Romania - the Romanian Athenaeum and the Victoria Palace. 

"I assure you that we will play our role of an impartial mediator, of a consensus facilitator, and that we will have as priorities the challenges existing on European level. (...) Moreover, I want to assure you that each Minister of the Cabinet has the European files on his/her work table and that, starting with 21 this month, they will go to the specialist commissions of the European Parliament," Dancila also said.