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President Klaus Iohannis said in Brussels on Friday, after the meeting of the European Council, that the message sent by the Union's leaders is a positive one and that they want to make the Union "better, closer to the citizen."
"There have been two days of good discussions. The general message we can convey after these two days is a positive one. We are united, we are determined to move ahead, not just anyhow, but with optimism, so that we can make the Union better, closer to the citizen. We have worked in both formats - [including] the EU28 format, with the UK. (...) Today, we have discussed the so-called Leaders' agenda, proposed by [European Council] President Donald Tusk, an agenda for the following two years, which plans how and where we meet, so that we can clarify as many issues as possible and are able to design the future of the EU. It is an important paradigm shift," the head of state said, adding that the two days of discussions were intense.
According to him, Romania wants to enter a strategic planning area. "Over the recent years, we have usually reacted to what happened to us, we have tried to manage crises. Now we want to enter a strategic planning area and build the future of the Union ourselves, as we think it must be for the European citizens."
President Iohannis announced that Romania has decided, together with the countries participating in the meeting, to support the Nuclear Agreement with Iran. "Last night we discussed a very important topic, not only for the Union, but for everybody - the Nuclear Agreement with Iran. We unanimously decided to support this agreement. You know that there currently is a discussion on an international level. We, the European Union, continue to support the nuclear agreement with Iran," the head of state stressed.
The migration topic was also on the agenda of the European Council meeting in Brussels. "Yesterday we had a discussion on migration and I must admit that it was the first talk on migration on a rather positive, confident note. We have good results on all migration routes, in the sense that this migration flow has diminished very much. This is due to both the efforts of the Union and the efforts made by some member states. For instance, Italy got highly involved, with very nice results," the head of state said.
The discussions on Friday, which were conducted in the EU27 format, without the UK, referred to Brexit. "We have a negotiation team, headed by Mr Michel Barnier, that negotiates the Brexit conditions. Initially, we worked in the idea of finding today a solution allowing us take the next step. The negotiations were intense, progress was made, but not sufficient. Therefore, today we noted that not enough progress was made to go to the next stage in the relation with the UK, however this mustn't create a particular pessimism, the positions have been negotiated, they have gotten closer, but not enough to go further. Negotiations will go on and we'll be trying to get the approval to continue at the next Council meeting in December," President Iohannis underscored.
According to him, the Brexit calendar is no longer observed. "The calendar is no longer observed, it is clear, but that was a calendar with the option proposal that was thought feasible. We cannot overlook sensitive points for the sake of an agenda," the Romanian head of state showed. Asked about the EU's relation with Turkey, with particular reference to the cut in pre-accession funding, Klaus Iohannis showed that the discussion was rather of mutual briefing and background. "These matters are quite complex. You very well know that certain statements have been made on both sides, which haven't necessarily been positive. The developments in Turkey obviously create certain concern for many political leaders, and we discussed all these matters. We are going to find - together with Turkey - a future collaboration formula," the President detailed.
President Klaus Iohannis participated on Thursday and Friday in the European Council meeting in Brussels, which mainly approached migration topics, the Union's digital agenda, security and defence, the relations between the EU and Turkey and the North Korean file. EU's future was also tackled during the Council's meeting, a context in which the Leaders' Agenda was discussed, a document proposed by the Council President, detailing on the calendar and topics to be discussed by the European leaders by the end of the first half of 2019.
Furthermore, a session in EU27 format took place, devoted to discussions referring to the UK leaving the EU, for the assessment of the progress made so far in the negotiation process.
