Parliament's foreign policy committees give clearance to Ciamba for his appointment as Ambassador to Greece

The standing committees on foreign policy of the Senate and the Deputies' Chamber gave the green light, unanimously (15 votes 'in favour'), for George Ciamba's appointment as Romania's Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic. At his hearing in the relevant committees of Parliament, Ciamba, who is currently the Minister-delegate for European Affairs, pleaded for the continuation of the bilateral exchanges between the two countries. "In order to be able to push forth an European agenda, we need a group of countries with similar interests. (...) The Romania - Bulgaria - Greece format has value at the level of local communities. It is a territorial continuity, which can boost cross-border cooperation. (...) The bilateral exchanges should continue," Ciamba stated. He mentioned that there is "an issue in terms of the manner in which the associations of Aromanians are identified." "All the Aromanians associations in Greece identify themselves with the Greek state. Which makes it hard to even interact with them," Ciamba showed. Moreover, he believes Romania needs to have a consular office and an honorific consul in Crete. "In respect to Crete, first of all, in terms of representation, we would have to find an honorary consul. And, second of all, a consular office is needed. (..) In winter time, it's very complicated to have a very good communication. (...) It's very good to have someone there, at local level. (...) There's the issue of tourism. In Crete, you should have a double consular representation, because in the summer, there are all kind of incidents happening in places where there are many tourists. The Romanian tourists can lose their papers. There are many things that can happen, accidents, and it's good to have someone there," George Ciamba stated. AGERPRES (RO - author: Livia Popescu, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Rodica State, editor: Cristina Zaharia)