President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday said Romania is deeply committed to advancing all the European Union’s priorities for the period 2024-2029 and that the country can contribute significantly to this process.

President Klaus Iohannis and European Council President Charles Michel will hold a working meeting on Wednesday at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace dedicated to the preparation of the future Strategic Agenda of the European Union, which will be attended by the Prime Ministers of Belgium, Hungary and Croatia.

„We will start the discussion along the lines set out together in the Granada Declaration of October 2023, which marked the start of the process of defining our strategic orientations and priorities for 2024-2029 and identified security and defence, enlargement, the EU’s global engagement, resilience and competitiveness, energy and migration among the priority themes. Romania is deeply committed, every day, to advancing all these priorities of the Union and we can contribute significantly to this process, including on the basis of our experience as a state that joined more recently and is in the immediate vicinity of the war in Ukraine,” said the head of state, after the meeting with European Council President Charles Michel.

He stressed that, from Romania’s perspective, in the coming years, the European Union needs to focus on „strengthening the European construction,” referring in particular to security and defence.

„It is our main priority and the perspective from which we look at Bucharest and the EU enlargement process: as a long-term strategic investment in our common security,” said Iohannis.

President Iohannis said that, in terms of connectivity, Romania wants a Europe that is well anchored in global supply chains, and that the Black Sea has a strategic role to play in this regard.

„At the same time, it is important to see connectivity also as a vector for deepening integration within the Union,” the president added.

With regard to the Single Market, he pointed out that it remains a fundamental pillar of the European project and the best instrument to strengthen growth and resilience, including to face external shocks.

„I will plead for boosting competitiveness, maintaining cohesion within the Internal Market and fair competition within the Union and in relation to external partners,” Iohannis added.

The Romanian president said that the discussions on the EU Strategic Agenda will highlight the unity and common commitment of member states to find solutions to priority problems for citizens and to strengthen the Union at a key moment of its existence.

„Major challenges lie ahead, but we also have the lessons learnt from the last five extremely difficult years, in which the Union has proved that it is resilient, adaptable and capable of protecting its citizens,” the head of state added.

AGERPRES