Minister-delegate Negrescu: Romania wants citizen-centred EU Council presidency

Romania wants its presidency of the Council of the European Union to be "citizen-centered," the country's Minister-delegate for European Affairs Victor Negrescu said at a conference on "The Road to Sibiu, from Sofia, via Vienna" on Thursday.

"Romania has two main directions - the first is to talk about European citizens, about those European policies, those decisions that bring prosperity to the citizens," Negrescu said.

He added that out of more than 300 files under the council's scrutiny, there are "many that have a real impact," "from the way the internet is handled, to what is written on a product when you buy it at the supermarket, from farmers' subsidies to environmental issues, and all that means consumer access to efficient, inexpensive energy."

"We want a citizen-centred presidency. We did so in the preparation process and we will continue with a special emphasis on the cohesion component," added Negrescu.

Head of the European Commission Representation in Romania Angela Cristea spoke about the importance of the citizens' voice and said that a citizen's summit with representatives of the member states will be held on November 22 and 23 ahead of the European summit in Sibiu in 2019.

"The European Union is not Brussels." (...) The European Union is everywhere," she said.

In her turn, Lilyana Pavlova, minister of the Bulgarian EU Presidency, spoke about the Romania-Bulgaria relationship, at the end of the Bulgarian presidency.

She mentioned joint projects of Romania and Bulgaria for accession to the Schengen area and the Eurozone. "We have to be united. If we are united, we will be stronger," Pavlova pointed out.

The Bulgarian official also mentioned her country's experience with holding the presidency of the EU Council and pointed out the need for strong political leadership as well as autonomous experts. "They have to be flexible, ready, not to say, 'I have to call the capital to be allowed to do this,'" she said.

Pavlova said that during the Bulgarian presidency, 80 percent of the files under discussion were closed. AGERPRES (RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)