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EconMin Spataru: Our heavy industry will be a key element in Ukraine's rebuilding, we need it.
Romania has a responsibility to keep its large industry, heavy industry, because it will be a key element in the reconstruction of Ukraine, and the sustainability and resilience of the European economy cannot exist without industries, Economy Minister Florin Spataru said on Thursday, told Agerpres.
"(...) in the current context, we are talking about strengthening the capacity of European Union countries and Romania in ensuring military equipment, services and ammunition for the security of European countries, but (...) ) we also had a discussion organized by us with the big players in the heavy industry and there were present those from Liberty Galati, Alro, TMK, the automotive industry, Ford, Dacia, cement producers, cardboard producers and we discussed about European competition, the manner in which the current context influences the competition of European companies and what we should do. There are a few things that came out clearly from that discussion: that Romania has a responsibility to keep its large industry, heavy industry, because it will be a key element in the reconstruction of Ukraine," Spataru said, mentioning that he recently visited two companies in the defence industry together with European Commissioner Thierry Breton (commissioner for Internal Market).
According to the minister, in this entire European reconstruction model, there is a need of these raw materials coming "from a country at the border of Ukraine and which, together with the Republic of Moldova, has the longest border between Ukraine and other countries: 2,300 km," alongside Poland, which has 500 km of border.
"So we have the widest access possibilities in that area. We also discussed [with Commissioner Breton] about changing a European paradigm, because until 2019 we were talking about the research/development component of services, new products, which were not made in the European Union, we were outsourcing most of the production activity to the Asian area and we later realized that this model can no longer work: long delays in supply, protectionist measures from many countries, which led us to stop producing, thousands, tens of thousands of people unemployed, because we no longer had those raw materials, those intermediate products. And we finally realized that in fact that European economic model could no longer work in the next period. One thing is very clear: the sustainability and resilience of the European economy cannot exist without industries," Florin Spataru argued.
He pointed out that the industry represents a pole of competitiveness that both the European economy and the Romanian economy have.
"But, apart from these discussions and how we can support these poles of competitiveness, we also discussed unfair competition, products that use raw materials from countries subject to international sanctions, delivered through intermediaries using countries with which we have free trade agreements and which, when entering the European market, lead to the closure of companies, and Romania is an example in this regard," he underscored.
