Romania admission to the European Union and the changes incurred by this process “irreversibly contributed to consolidating the reform processes, contributed to a society modernization, essentially contributed to the economic development” – this was the main idea expressed during the conference organised in Bucharest “Ten years later…,” held by the European Commission Representation.

“In 2004, Romania’s GDP was EUR 80 billion and last year, when we had the best GDP, we reached EUR 140 billion,” said secretary of state for European Affairs George Ciamba yesterday, ten years after ten Eastern European states joined the EU and seven years after Romania and Bulgaria joined.

During its seven years within the Union, Romania had a “fairly important contribution” to the evolution of Europe, claimed Ciamba. “Romania is an active participant to the economic coordination mechanisms within the EU and to the measures for economic revitalization. … We have joined the Euro Plus Pact, we are part of the Treaty for stability, coordination and governance within the Economic and Monetary Union, but we are also part of the negotiation process of the Banking Union,” said the Romanian official. He added that Romania is part of the “select group of those which overcame the procedure of excessive deficit,” and is “very well placed to meet the assumed budget targets.”

Ciamba also claimed that for the first time Romania meets al the criteria to join the Eurozone. “I believe there are all the conditions that we meet all the Maastricht criteria this year, as we did in 2013, regarding inflation. We believe it is the first time we met all criteria to join the Eurozone. This is also visible from the fact that the attractiveness of the Romanian market for foreign investments has increased lately, I believe we can already see a more dynamic presence of investments in Romania,” said George Ciamba, adding that Romania can be found in the “core of member states at the front of economic governance.”

On the other hand, the state secretary stressed that “it is highly comforting to be in Romania,” where “Europe still has value added” and is not “a Europe like you see in other parts, a Europe which currently relies on an anti-European discourse at the moment.” As for future projects, George Ciamba said that Romania aims to “boost its profile on European level,” and remains a staunch supporter of the expansion policy,” as well as an active promoter of the European perspective of the states in the region.” Besides, Bucharest is “an active supporter of energy security,” and pleads for the creation of a joint energy policy.

The conference “The years later…” united leaders of opinion, representatives of the central administration, members of the civil society and various fields experts, to talk about what the Romanian state has reaped after joining the EU seven years ago, along with Bulgaria.

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