President Iohannis in Brussels for European Council meeting

President Klaus Iohannis will participate in a meeting of the European Council in Brussels on Thursday and Friday. The meeting’s agenda include European defense policy, economic topics like employment, growth, competitiveness, digitalization, innovation and trade, migration, the future budget of the EU, as well as issues related to the Union’s foreign relations. Finally, the leaders will discuss the most recent developments related to Brexit, according to a statement by the Presidency.

On the European defense policy, president Iohannis will talk about the importance of the permanent structured cooperation (PESCO) and salute the recorded progress, particularly in areas like military mobility and cyberthreats and will express Romania’s support for NATO and the EU’s initiatives aiming to improve military mobility and will reiterate our support for increasing cooperation between the EU and NATO.

During economic talks, Iohannis will talk about the need to implement reforms that can improve the resilience of member states’ economies and will underline the importance of research and innovation as key elements for the EU’s competitiveness.

Iohannis will also plead for maintaining an attractive investment climate within the EU, showing that Romania supports a fair and efficient system for taxing companies, which can be adapted to new business models in the context of digitalization. On trade, Romania remains a strong supporter of the rules-based multilateral system established at the WTO. On the future EU budget, the Romanian president will plead for concluding negotiations as soon as possible and for the need to identify balanced solutions that can be agreed upon by all member states.

Managing migrant influx remains a priority for the EU and its member states and Iohannis will reiterate the need for continued consolidation of protection at the EU’s external borders and will highlight the need for a collective effort to improve dialogue with the migrants’ origin and transit countries.

During Brexit talks, Iohannis will support the importance of maintaining a united and coherent voice of the EU in the negotiation process in order to obtain a fair deal for all parties. Romania’s priority is to protect the rights and interests of its citizens who live in the UK.

On Friday, the president will participate in the extended Euro Summit, where he will say that for Romania, as a state that wants to enter the eurozone as soon as possible, strengthening the Economic and Monetary Union is of major importance. Decisions in this area are very important for the future of the entire Union, and Romania supports the extended format debates which include states that are not yet a part of the eurozone.