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Romania participates in one of the most ambitious international assistance projects - "Team Europe", which was the main topic on the agenda of European officials at the informal meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, and at the same time our country is part of "The Coronavirus Global Response" fundraising initiative, the MAE (Foreign Affairs Ministry) informs on Monday.
Ministers and secretaries of state responsible for development cooperation in the Member States of the European Union analysed - at the informal meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council - the development component, organised on Monday by videoconference - the programme aimed at providing support to developing or underdeveloped countries, which are experiencing difficulties in combating the COVID-19 pandemic, a MAE release reads.
"The United Nations has called on the countries of the world to work together to combat this pandemic. Through the European Union, we have responded and are part of this effort that contributes to our safety, to the safety of all of us," Romania's representative, the secretary of state for interinstitutional relations, Daniela Gitman, said, according to the release.
Thus, our country opines that solidarity should not be just a blank notion - as long as it is not constrained in all regions of the world, the novel coronavirus will continue to be a threat to all of us.
The Romanian official also stressed the need to support the eastern neighbourhood states and referred to the substantial aid, of 3.5 million euros, to combat the pandemic, which Romania recently granted to the Republic of Moldova.
As part of the Team Europe project, our country has reconfigured more than half of its humanitarian and support projects for this year, managed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the Development Cooperation Agency (RoAid).
"We have two criteria in the allocation of these programmes: in the short term, helping vulnerable states in the current context; in the medium term, our programmes target the consequences of this pandemic, where health or economic systems are exceeded," the secretary of state Daniela Gitman said, according to the source.
According to its commitments, Romania will continue to provide development assistance in neighbouring regions, such as the Western Balkans, Eastern Partnership countries and Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa. The Multiannual Strategic Programme on International Cooperation for Development and Humanitarian Assistance in the period 2020-2023 will also take into account these two coordinates.
Among Romania's funding priorities, within the framework of the Team Europe initiative, are the improvement of the institutional capacity of health systems, ensuring food security, sustainable management of water resources, combating false news in the context of the pandemic. Another means of assistance is that of education, where, compared to the academic year 2019-2020, Romania has doubled the number of scholarships awarded to young people in African states.
In the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO) was also invited to attend the informal meeting of ministers responsible for development cooperation in the Member States of the European Union. In this context, mentions the MAE release, the secretary of state Daniela Gitman pointed out that Romania is part of "The Coronavirus Global Response" fundraising initiative, which aims to develop, produce and mobilize treatments.
