Former Defense Minister Ioan Mircea Pascu, currently advisor to the Governor of the National Bank of Romania, during a specialist conference on Wednesday, was in favor of setting up a working group at the Government level to draw European funds necessary for the Romanian defense industry.
The Council of the European Union recently voted for the European initiative SAFE ("Security Action for Europe"), a program under which the EU member states can access a total of 150 billion euros in military aid. Out of this program Romania aims to draw 5 billion euros, agerpres reports.
"Maybe it would be necessary at the Government level to set up a working group to deal with this. It is important awareness raising on the part of the political factor because we need a coherent vision," said Pascu.
According to the former minister, this working group should include representatives of the Ministries of Defense, Economy and Finance, as well as other decision-making structures.
"We need to have a coherent integrated concept regarding what we need to do with the defense industry and to have access to this money from the European Union," Pascu argued.
He added that "the EU remains an extremely important factor in this regard and we must use all financial opportunities."
Ioan Mircea Pascu also said that Romania must also ask itself the question of how it will pay this European money when it is due, given it has "older debts" and current deficits.
Opportunities and challenges for the defense industry in Romania were analyzed on Wednesday in a conference organized at the Palace of Parliament by the publication NewMoney.ro.
The event was organized in partnership with the Senate's Committee on Defense, Public Order and National Security, INSCOP Research, the Employers' Association of Military Equipment Makers (PATROMIL) and the news platform Informat.ro.
During the conference, INSCOP Research presented data on the population's perception of threats to national security and the allocation of resources for defense.
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