Financiarul

The Danube strategy should be presented to the European Council in the first six months of 2011, President Traian Base scu told a news conference given together with visiting President of the European Council Herman van Rompuy on Monday.

‘I also discussed with the president, apart from our special interest for the Danube-related strategy, that must be presented to the Council during the Presidency of Hungary, in the first six months of 2011, issues regarding the alternatives for the EU energy supply, the Nabucco project, as well as the PEOP project, with these being major priorities from our point of view’, Basescu said.

He thanked the European Council president for the occasion of having a substantial talk relating to the problems in the region, to the Black Sea- and Danube-related topics, as well as to Romania’s problems and their settlement. Basescu highlighted that the Republic of Moldova was one of the topics approached during the meeting.

‘I wanted to inform the president about the fact that a major political objective for Romania consists in the inclusion of the Republic of Moldova within the group of the Western Balkans, from the (EU) accession perspective. Likewise, I informed the president that the Republic of Moldova needs now positive signals, it needs both financial as well as political support’, underlined the Romanian head of state.

With respect to the states’ withdrawal from the market intervention, following the economic downturn, Basescu reiterated that Romania’s viewpoint is that this process should take place at a moment when each state’s economy is on a strengthened upward trend.
‘As far as we are concerned, we may consider the exit strategy after we end our agreement with the (International Monetary) Fund, at the end of 2010, starting from the premise that our objective is that Romania joins the Euro-zone at the end of 2014′, Basescu added.

Herman van Rompuy said in his turn that he is grateful to President Basescu for having presented a series of specific problems of great importance for Romania.
These problems included, among others, Romania’s current economic situation, the EU’s strategy on the Danube, the cooperation on the Black Sea synergy and others. President Basescu also presented the situation regarding the Republic of Moldova’s European aspirations, he added. The European official thanked for the hospitality he was welcomed with in Romania and for the feelings he will leave this visit with.