Minister-delegate Ciamba: The EU must have appropriate tools to act regionally and globally

In the Romania's vision, the European Union (EU) must have the appropriate tools to act on a regional and global level, following principles such as efficiency, consistency of its action, "especially in its neighborhood" honouring the commitments undertaken, Romania's Minister-delegate for European Affairs George Ciamba said on Thursday at the beginning of a seminar called "Strengthening the EU as a regional and global actor."

According to a press statement released by the Romanian Foreign Ministry (MAE), he said that these principles will guide the action of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union (EUC), in concrete priorities such as: the Western Balkans, by advancing the enlargement process, supporting young people and strategic communication, the Eastern Partnership, notably by marking the tenth anniversary of the initiative, but also by strengthening the European Union's defence capabilities, in a spirit of complementariness and in an enhanced partnership with NATO. Adding up to these priorities will be efforts to strengthen multilateralism, by boosting the EU - the UN co-operation and taking up the EU commitments in the field of development assistance."

At the same time, Ciamba praised Romanian-German co-operation for the success of this event, generally encouraging "reflection spaces" related to policies and instruments of the European Union, especially amidst a global reality that requires better coordination and more unity.

From a bilateral perspective, Ciamba said that this seminar reconfirms the strategic valences of the relationship with Germany, as well as the mutual interest in capitalising on it to advance common priorities at European, regional and global level. He also encouraged the stimulation of contacts between Romania and Germany at the level of civil society experts as that would further enhance the relationship between the two countries.

December 6-7, 2018, MAE hosts the seminar "Strengthening the EU as a regional and global actor," organised in partnership with the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Bertelsmann Foundation. The event is designed to identify concrete areas of co-operation and coming up with proposals in favour of strengthening the role of the European Union as a regional and global actor but also their coordinated follow-up by Romania and its main European partners, especially through the succession of the EU Council Presidencies in 2019 and 2020.

Taking into account Romania assuming the six-month rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union on January 1 and Germany assuming the same presidency in the second half of 2020, the seminar "Strengthening the EU as a regional and global actor" aims to conjugate efforts at the level of the Council of the European Union in the succession of the next two years to support the process of adjusting European external action to the new global strategic context. The event brought together German and Romanian diplomats, representatives of European institutions, experts from the Bertelsmann Foundation, as well as from the European and Romanian think-thank community.

The sessions in the two-day event address issues such as: the efficiency of European external action, the level of ambition in the field of security and defence, the enlargement policy and the EU's strategy in the Western Balkans, as well as European action in the Eastern Neighborhood. AGERPRES (RO-author: Sorin Penes, editor: Mihai Simionescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Rodica State)