President Klaus Iohannis, in European Council in Brussels

President Klaus Iohannis participated on Thursday in the European Council reunion that is taking place in Brussels, with the main themes on the agenda to be discussed being migration management, the European Union's internal and external security, economic aspects as well as foreign relations, the Presidential Administration announced in a release.

On the sidelines of the European Council meeting, an informal meeting of the 27 leaders (EU 28 minus United Kingdom) was held, and its objective is to set out how the Brexit process will be handled by the remaining EU 27 member-states.

President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday upon arriving at the European Council meeting in Brussels that discussions on the manner how social aid is granted to foreign workers, in the Brexit context, must be conducted very carefully. 

The head of state was asked about Romania's position on the European Commission's proposal to rethink the manner of granting social aid to seconded workers. 

"We must understand how this proposal was reached. In fact, it derives from the discussions carried out before the Brexit, when everyone was trying to find a flexible form of approach to be able to prevent the Brexit. This hasn't been achieved, but the discussions did take place and here we see that they generate results for the countries in the western part of the continent. They somehow represent very political approaches. To us, they represent discussions that must be conducted very carefully, because we don't have absolutely any interest and we have no intention to end up in situations in which our citizens could be disfavored," President Iohannis said.

EU leaders who met in Brussels on Thursday decided to extend by 6 months, until the end of January 2017, sanctions imposed on Russia following the annexation of Crimea, according to Reuters and DPA who quote diplomatic sources.

The decision was unexpected, the formal process of extending sanctions taking place next week, diplomats indicated.

EU had decided in June to extend sanctions against Russia in the energy, financial and defence fields until the end of January 2017.

The Romanian head of state is participating in the European Council meeting in Brussels.

EU leaders met in Brussels on Thursday (15 December) for a one-day summit focussing on migration and security.

The Council agenda included discussions on:

• The implementation of the EU-Turkey Statement

• Reform of the Common European Asylum System and how to apply the principles of responsibility and solidarity in the future

• The EU’s Global Strategy in the area of security and defence

• The European Defence Action Plan

• Progress on the economy, social development and youth

• External relations

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