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Bulgaria is a key-partner for Romania in the region and the commercial exchanges exceeded 4 billion euro last year, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila stated at the end of the 5th meeting of the High-level Cooperation Council of Romania's and Bulgaria's Governments.
"The bilateral meeting which I carried out with my counterpart and the intergovernmental consultations which followed, alongside numerous contacts at political and sectoral levels over the last period reflect the close and substantial relations between our countries and the common will to further develop them. The 5th meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council between Romania and Bulgaria takes place at an anniversary moment, when we mark 140 years since the establishment of the bilateral relations between the two countries. Bulgaria is a key-partner for Romania in the region, the bilateral commercial exchanges exceeded 4 billion euro in the previous year, confirming the upward trend of the last seven years," Dancila told the joint press statements with her Bulgarian counterpart Boyko Borissov.
She brought to mind that there are numerous ongoing bilateral projects in areas such as transport, energy, local public administration, cross border cooperation.
"In today's meeting I confirmed, together with Prime Minister Borissov, our decision to provide the necessary political impulse to a cooperation that will continue the positive trend so far and run at a more sustained pace, capitalising as much as possible on the existing potential. Our firm commitment in this regard is reflected in the joint statement we have adopted. The political statement details the cooperation sectors and sets the framework for action to strengthen bilateral, regional, European and international cooperation," Dancila added.
According to the PM, within the meeting held at the Victoria Palace, several documents in priority areas were signed, which relate to the cooperation for emergency situations, stimulating SMEs, improving the navigation conditions on the common Romanian-Bulgarian sector of the Danube and transport connectivity.
"We agreed to provide additional dynamism to joint projects and actions in priority areas of cooperation such as connectivity. We will continue to work together to ensure the the navigability on the Danube River through concrete maintenance and naval infrastructure projects, identifying the optimal location for building a new bridge over the Danube, the development of railway infrastructure linking the two states," PM Viorica Dancila stated.
She voiced her belief that the Giurgiu-Ruse gas pipeline, inaugurated in November 2016, will become operational at maximum capacity by completing the works at the natural gas compressor in Podisor in the assumed deadline - 2019.
"At the same time, we strongly support the BRUA projects [the the National Gas Transmission System on the Bulgaria-Romania-Hungary-Austria corridor] (...) and the Greece-Bulgaria-Romania vertical corridor, able to ensure access to a wide range of resources to our states and Central European partners," Dancilla stated.
According to the Executive head, a series of concrete measures were discussed, related to protecting and stating the ethnic and linguistic identity of Romanians in Bulgaria and of Bulgarians in Romania.
She also referred to the cooperation between the two countries at EU-level, expressing satisfaction with the "exemplary" way in which the authorities of the two countries worked jointly in the framework of the coordination and good practice mechanism regarding Romania and Bulgaria exercising for the first time the EU Council Presidency.
"At the same time, the two countries cooperate at EU level to promote common objectives, including Schengen accession, for which the technical criteria have been met ever since 2011," Viorica Dancila said.
On the occasion of the 5th meeting of the High-Level Cooperation Council of the Governments of Romania and the Republic of Bulgaria, the relevant ministers of the two countries signed the Governmental Agreement regarding cooperation in the emergency situation area, a Memorandum of Understanding on SMEs and another one regarding the implementation of joint initiatives for improving the navigation conditions on the common Romanian-Bulgarian sector of the Danube and connectivity in the transport area.
