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PM Ciolos to pay an official visit to Berlin on January 7 at the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel
Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos announced on Wednesday he is to pay an official visit to Berlin on January 7 at the invitation of German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"She invited me to Berlin and we set the date of the visit during the meeting (editor's note: with the German Chancellor in Brussels) (...) as January 7," Ciolos told Antena 3 private television broadcaster.
The PM stated his intention was to pay a visit to Berlin as soon as possible in order to present the Government's plans and the governing platform in what concerns the economy sector.
The Government's spokesman Dan Suciu said on Wednesday that the delegation which will accompany the prime minister will include Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu and Head of Prime Minister's Chancellery Dragos Tudorache.
"It will be a working meeting, a working luncheon with Chancellor Angela Merkel. We will have a meeting with the Romanian community and the Romanian-German Forum that has representatives in Berlin. The goal is to strengthen bilateral relations and to clarify the common objectives on European agenda, and topics that have been under discussion in the European Council this month related to migration and foreign policy," said Dan Suciu.
According to the Government's spokesman, the visit has a lower economic dimension because Deputy PM Costin Borc attended recently a Romanian-German business forum.
"I would like Romania to play a more proactive role in its relations with the EU on a government level and not a reactive one as has been the case many times up until now. (...) Proactive in the sense of anticipating certain decisions that are in the works, certain draft laws, to anticipate, to try to identify the sore spots that might come up in talks, to take a stand as a member state on those topics and become involved in negotiation groups for the final positions and of decisions to be taken," Ciolos said, adding that a proactive state is one that matters.
The PM also expressed his intentions to pay an official visit to the French capital at the end of January or early February at the invitation of French President Francois Hollande, adding that he is waiting for the investiture of the Romanian Ambassador to France in order to prepare the visit.
Moreover, Ciolos also stated also plans to pay a visit to The Netherlands, the country assuming the EU presidency in the first semester of 2016, at the invitation of his Dutch counterpart.
"I would like to discuss the priorities of The Netherlands as holder of the EU presidency and to see how we position ourselves on certain topics," the Prime Minister said.