#Romania2019.eu/Teodorovici: We are ready to work at a sustained pace to have an agreement on EU budget by year-end

Romania is ready to work at a sustained pace during the negotiations on the future European budget for 2021-2027, so that an agreement to be reached by the end of this year, Minister of Finance, Eugen Teodorovici, said in a release sent to AGERPRES on Saturday.

The FinMin presented the priorities of the Romanian presidency of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council, for the first half of this year, at the reunion "Economic and social convergence, cohesion and inclusion," held on Friday, January 11.

Participating in the reunion held on the occasion of the presence in Bucharest of the College of Commissioners were also the Vice-President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, who is in charge with the Euro and Social Dialogue, and also in charge of Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union, the Commissioner for Budget and Human Resources, Gunther Oettinger, Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility, Marianne Thyssen, Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs, Pierre Moscovici, Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, as well as the Commissioner for Regional Policy, Corina Cretu.

"Romania's priorities in the ECOFIN field are boosting the economic growth and investment, as well as supporting structural reforms, to the benefit of the member states and European citizens. A major importance for the Romanian presidency is ensuring the continuity of the European legislative process, as well as ensuring an equal treatment and maintaining unity within the EU," specified Eugen Teodorovici, quoted in the release.

With respect to the main files on the ECOFIN agenda, the Romanian Minister underscored that the Romanian presidency seeks to promote of a constructive manner the discussions regarding the strengthening of the Economic and Monetary Union (EMU), in order to facilitate the European Union's Interests in various fields such as cohesion, convergence and resilience.

Such topics related to the strengthening of the EMU will be approached of an inclusive and transparent manner to allow the participation of all member states. The InvestEU programme and the Structural Reform Support Programme, tightly connected to the EMU are important topics on the PRES RO agenda. Thus, the InvestEU file will also be included with the agenda of the ECOFIN meeting in January.
Moreover, the VAT system, the general excise regime, the taxation of the digital economy and the Fiscalis programme are the priorities of the PRES RO in the taxation field.

Not last, the Minister of Finance underscored the importance the Romanian presidency of the Council of EU grants to negotiations on the future European budget for 2021-2027.

"We want to facilitate an efficient negotiation process for the post 2021 agreement, considering the uncertain conditions caused by the Brexit and the conclusion of one of the institutional partner's mandate. We are ready to work at a sustained pace to advance the negotiations regarding the future financial framework, as substantially as possible, in order to have an agreement by the end of the year. Moreover, we believe that preparing a quality implementation of the projects financed with European money starting with January 1 2021 is a common objectives of all the member states," underscored Teodorovici. AGERPRES (RO - author: Florentina Cernat, editor: Nicoleta Gherasi; EN - author/editor: Cristina Zaharia)