Romanian ForMin Aurescu says Covid-19 crisis has pushed us to rethink connectivity in all dimensions

''The Covid-19 crisis has pushed us to rethink connectivity in all dimensions, on both sides of the Atlantic. The free movement of people, goods and ideas - the nerves that kept our world in motion - has started facing baffling setbacks,'' Romania's Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu writes in an op-ed article for EU OBSERVER published on Tuesday. These times of restraints and uncertainty may stem democracies from thriving and may bring inevitable if temporary limitations upon our democratic societies, warns the Romanian chief diplomat, adding that action is needed to protect the social fabric of our built-in democratic interdependence, safeguard the freedom of movement of essential goods and provide real prospects for resuming the freedom of movement of people as soon as possible. Aurescu mentions that joint decisions and cooperation have already facilitated the emergency repatriation of hundreds of thousands of stranded European and American citizens to their homes and loved ones. ''What our citizens need to feel now, when they are burdened by insecurity on so many levels, is that they can truly and fully rely on our European and Euro-Atlantic institutions, like on their own very close family, for the reassuring feeling of trust and security.'' The opinion article signed by Bogdan Aurescu for EU OBSERVER called "Coronavirus: A test of the West" is also available on the website of the Romanian Foreign Affairs Ministry. AGERPRES (RO - author: Mariana Ionescu, editor: Sorin Popescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)