President Iohannis: Preparation of Multiannual Financial Framework handed over to Presidency of European Council

AGERPRES special correspondent Catalin Alexandru reports: President Klaus Iohannis has announced on Friday that within the European Council meeting it was decided for the preparation of the Multiannual Financial Framework be hand over to the Presidency of the European Council.

"The matter related to the Multiannual Financial Framework has been discussed and we decided, all together, to hand over the preparation of this budget to the Presidency of the European Council, because in the manner in which work was put in this draft, so far, the progress we expected hasn't been achieved. Thus, as of now, this matter will no longer be in the rotating Presidency's responsibility, but it will be under the Presidency of the European Council. Other important topics were also discussed last evening," Iohannis stated.

The head of state mentioned that another discussion tackled within the European Council meeting was on climate.

"The main goal was to obtain the so-called climate neutrality for the European Union by 2050. This goal has been discussed and the majority of us agreed that the European Union wants this thing. Here, I want to make another two remarks which are very important for the general public, to understand, in fact, what we are talking about here. Climate neutrality means we reach such a low level of emissions that virtually no climate change occurs. It's a very ambitious goal. However, until then, we have the clear and technically set out goal, 2030, and this objective is firmly assumed by the European Union and Romania fares pretty well in terms of achieving targets for 2030. So that everyone back home understands that we are working on lowering emissions and we are working with remarkable success in the EU," Iohannis explained.

The President underscored that the protection of nature and avoiding a climate catastrophe are "extremely important" things.

"We're doing something practical, concrete. We haven't obtained unanimity and this matter will be resumed in June next year, but the progress is a significant and encouraging one," he added.

Klaus Iohannis added that today, he is also to attend the Euro Summit meeting in an intensive format where aspects related to the banking union are to be discussed. "Later, we will have a discussion on Article 50, namely about Brexit and, today, I also foresee discussions with positive results," Iohannis also said.

President Klaus Iohannis participates on Thursday and Friday in the meeting of the European Council in Brussels.