Premium
President Klaus Iohannis attended on Tuesday a videoconference coordination meeting with European Council President Charles Michel and the Prime Ministers of the Netherlands, Mark Rutte, Hellenic Republic, Kyriakos Mitsotak, Republic of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic, and Republic of Estonia, Kaja Kallas, in preparation for the informal European Council meeting to be held in Versailles on Thursday and Friday.
According to the Presidential Administration, the talks focused on current security developments in Ukraine, efforts to manage and support refugee flows, humanitarian assistance measures for Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, sanctions on Russia and Belarus, and proposals to tighten them. There was also talk of strengthening the European Union's defence dimension, energy security, with a focus on reducing dependencies, diversifying supplies and finding European solutions to rising energy prices. Recent proposals have also been addressed to increase the resilience of European economies and to promote a European model of economic growth, designed to meet multiple challenges, Agerpres.ro informs.
The Presidential Administration points out that in his speech President Iohannis supported the role and impact that unity and coordination, not only within the European Union, but also with the United States, NATO and other strategic partners have in the reaction and the rapid response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine and stressed the importance of maintaining them firmly.
The head of state presented the measures taken by Romania in support of Ukraine, including the decision of our country to host a logistics center for the coordination and collection of international humanitarian assistance to Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, respectively, currently in the making, with the first humanitarian convoy to Ukraine be carried out in the next few days.
President Iohannis also stressed Romania's support for Ukraine's, Moldova's and Georgia's accession to the European Union family and the importance of a message of support at European level for all three states.
According to the quoted source, in the context of the discussions on energy security, the head of state referred to the short-term measures to manage the current situation, in terms of supplying member states, support to Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova, but also to medium and long-term ones, aimed at ending dependence on Russia and diversifying energy supplies.
"The President of Romania highlighted the role of ensuring the interconnections at the level of the member states, mentioning in this sense the interconnector between Greece and Bulgaria and the use of BRUA. Also, President Klaus Iohannis underlined the special importance of making the best use of the potential of transition fuels in ensuring energy security," shows the Presidential Administration.
The head of state also referred to the situation of energy prices, which remains a priority issue, from the perspective of the impact on the population, but also on the economies as a whole, and it is necessary to further identify solutions at European level to protect consumers as well as economic competitiveness at EU level.
President Klaus Iohannis also supported the need to strengthen the defence sector at European level, welcoming initiatives aimed at increasing investment in defense capabilities and innovative technologies. The head of state also announced the decision to increase spending on the defence sector to 2.5% of GDP in 2023.
