Interim President Ilie Bolojan said on Thursday that the European Union must be more economically competitive in order to be stronger, and stressed that we must insist on reducing bureaucracy at national level.

„As far as competitiveness is concerned, the European Union, in order to be stronger, must be a more economically competitive Union, in such a way that it can sustain prosperity and quality jobs for its citizens,” said Bolojan, who attended the European Council meeting on Thursday.

He said that an important direction in this regard is simplification and cutting red tape.

„This means that, both at European and national level, we will work on deregulation, simplification, in order to reduce administrative costs, so that companies spend less to comply. Procurement in general will also be simplified, specifically defence procurement, so that the procedures are not so bureaucratic. (…. ) I believe that, in the coming period, we, at the national level, must insist on this area of simplification, reduction of bureaucracy and deregulation and thus additional conditions will be created for economic growth, for supporting entrepreneurship and for a better link between the state and citizens,” explained Bolojan.

The interim president mentioned that another important direction is related to affordable energy, mentioning that the interconnection of energy markets, planning investments in the cross-border area, authorization of energy projects in the shortest possible time in order to increase production capacities and a common energy market are envisaged.

„Once the nuclear investments are made in Romania, these hydropower plants are completed and the gas production from the Black Sea increases, we could be in a position to export new energy from Romania in the coming years. This would create some advantages both for Romanian companies and for the energy market in general,” he added.

According to the interim president, another direction is to support an integrated capital market.

„The Commission will aim in the coming period to support convergent supervisory practices, to have the same rules in general. Each country has taken a European directive, has applied it, sometimes modifying it, and has set up its own supervisory authorities, which are sometimes differently organized from one country to another and so it is difficult to invest from one country to another in the financial markets. There is also different legislation from country to country, for example insolvency law or commercial law issues, and a gradual unification of these practices would make European markets much more vibrant and bring a win-win situation for investors and companies alike,” said the interim president.

Moreover, another important direction is the support of industry and skills in a single market, a framework in which the support of artificial intelligence, of modern communication technologies, the acquisition and recognition of skills throughout the European Union, the support of research and innovation and of industries in transition, such as automotive, aviation or energy-consuming industries will be pursued.

AGERPRES