Romania-Croatia economic relations and Presidency of EU Council discussed by PM Dancila with Croatian counterpart

Prime Minister Viorica Dancila on Monday had a meeting in Zagreb with her Croatian counterpart Andrej Plenkovic, whom she discussed with the economic and commercial relations existing between the two states, but also about Romania preparing to take over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union on January 1, 2019.

"We agreed, during the visit of the Croatian PM in Romania that the bilateral relations between the two states are on an upward trend. We had a good sectoral cooperation. Several minister from Romania cam here, to Zagreb, and several ministers from Zagreb visited Romania, so that we can find common interests for cooperation between the two states," the Romanian PM stated.

Moreover, Viorica Dancila underscored that she discussed with her counterpart from Zagreb about the challenges that Romania will have at European level once it takes over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

"Another aspects tackled during our discussions had to do with the Romanian-Finland-Croatia trio, which implies a common programme, discussions, a consensus with respect to the programme of the three presidencies in the next 18 months. We talked about Romanian preparing to take over the rotating Presidency of the Council of the EU, on January 1 2019, about the challenges that require an answer from us at European level. And I mean now the challenges related to Brexit, the future of the European Union post-Brexit, with the Summit in Sibiu on May 9 2019 to play an important role in this respect. We talked about our common interests, our common approach that we need to have in respect to the traditional policies at European level - and I mean here the common agricultural policy, as well as the cohesion policy, but also challenges related to migration, terrorism, defence policy and, of course, a thing that interests both countries: Schengen," said Dancila.

According to the head of the Executive in Bucharest, the agenda of discussions also included the Three Seas Initiative and the Danube Strategy.

"I assures Mr. Prime Minister that, last week, the Romanian Government adopted a normative act that stipulates the setting up of a working group related to projects under the Three Seas Initiative. Another thing that we considered had to do with the Danube Strategy. Romania holds the Presidency of the EUSDR (the EU Strategy for the Danube Region), but it will also include the Danube Strategy in the Presidency programme, which requires coordination between Romania and Croatia," Viorica Dancila mentioned.

On the occasion of her visit to Zagreb, the Prime Minister will participate in the opening of the Summit of heads of government of the Central European Initiative (CEI) member states. AGERPRES (RO - author: Cristian Lupascu, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Rodica State)

Photo source: gov.ro