ForMin Aurescu: Hundreds of job positions to be up for grabs

Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu said in an interview with AGERPRES that in the next two years he is considering a "deep renewal" of the diplomatic and consular corps, adding that several hundred posts will be put up for grabs to this end.

"We want to introduce into the Ministry of Foreign Affairs people who are very well trained, who are suitable from a professional point of view, but also from the point of view of conduct, general training, tasks and requirements and the quite special working conditions entailed by the activity in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," he said.

Aurescu went on to explain that "As you have noticed, we also carried out a renewal of the leadership of diplomatic missions both last year, when there was a first wave of recalls and appointments respectively, with a significant renewal, with a significant number of mission heads who are appointed for the first time to such a position. This time, we've had 23 recalls and a number close to appointments to these positions. We also made sure that at least one third of these positions are occupied by women," he added.

"At the level of the leadership positions with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, more than 54 pct are held by the ladies, and at the level of the missions, almost 36 pct of the positions are occupied by female diplomats," Aurescu emphasized.

"We try to make it so that as many consular services as possible can be performed digitally, so that we reduce as much as possible the physical presence of the Romanian citizen at the counter. Therefore, in the coming period we will have three important categories of consular services that will be de-bureaucratised, a number of consular services that we can de-bureaucratise and streamline without the need for legislative changes," the minister said.

Also, he added, "We will continue the process of expanding the consular network. At the end of last year, we adopted in the Government a Memorandum providing for the extension of the consular network, the opening of new offices, about 18 new consular posts. This year, for example, we are working to open new Consulates General by transforming the consular sections from a number of embassies in major capitals," he stressed.

The chief diplomat added that "Equally, we will be concerned with the efficiency of the call center of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, because this call center was initiated, launched, in 2015 and is already physically and morally outdated."

"We have done an exercise to consult the Romanian communities, we have developed a first form of this plan of itinerant consulates, we will put up the result of this process for public debate and consultation," he said.

"Another line of action I have in mind is the much better professional training of those who provide consular services. There are Romanian citizens who sometimes complain about the quality of these services or complain about the treatment they receive at the counter. I have promoted a policy of zero tolerance towards our colleagues who do not respect the absolutely necessary rules of conduct in relation to Romanian citizens, but on the other hand there is also a need for a greater effort to train consular agents, consular officials, so that consular services are of much better quality," Aurescu said. AGERPRES