President Klaus Iohannis attended on Friday a working meeting with counterparts in the Friends of Cohesion Group, on the sidelines of the extraordinary meeting of the European Council where the future budget of the European Union is being discussed.
The goal of the leaders that are part of this group, to be named as of Friday "Friends of an ambitious Europe", is to obtain an ambitious budget, in the best interest of Europe and of the European citizens.
The Friends of Cohesion Group includes: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Hungary.
Klaus Iohannis had a meeting on Friday morning with the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, after the works of the extraordinary meeting of the European Council on the EU 2021-2027 multiannual budget have been interrupted.
Iohannis said on Friday that no progress has been made as regards the negotiations on the EU 2021-2027 multiannual budget, but that both European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen were open to Romania's proposals on the EU's multiannual budget.
"Both President Charles Michel and President Ursula von der Leyen were open to our proposals and, after the last discussion we had a few weeks ago with the President of the Council, changes have been made in the budget proposal, which meet our demands. "It's part of the negotiation, but until we have unanimity on the budget, we have no budget, we only have discussions and proposals," said Iohannis.
He pointed out, nevertheless, that "the positions did not draw closer", not even after the talks in bilateral formats between the representatives of the states with the leadership of the European Council and the European Commission.
"These discussions lasted until 6:00 hrs, when my team and I joined in the negotiations, but the result is, at least until now, disappointing. I cannot say that progress has been made, the positions did not draw closer and today, in a few minutes, we are going again in a plenary sitting and trying to see if we can make progress in these negotiations. (...) It would be good to make progress, but most of us are - I have to admit - quite skeptical," the Romanian head of state said.
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