The Romanian Chamber of Deputies Speaker Valeriu Zgonea discussed with President of Belgium’s Chamber of Representatives Andre Flahaut in Brussels on Friday about the priorities of the bilateral parliamentary dialogue, the development potential of the commercial relations between the two states and the two sides’ interest in continuing to promote the Romanian-Belgian partnership in various areas, the Romanian lower chamber said in a release.
‘I am convinced that the parliamentary dialogue will see better dynamic. I want to underline the important role played by parliamentary diplomacy, as a very efficient tool for even more closing our very rich cooperation ties existing in a host of areas of common interest. Belgium can offer useful models or comparison terms in the reform effort and the effort for administrative decentralization in Romania as well as functioning examples of enforcing the subsidiarity principles’, said Zgonea, who paid an official visit to Belgium on Friday.
He made President Flahaut an invitation to pay an official visit to Romania, the release said.
Given that joining Schengen Area is a priority for Romania, the Belgian Chamber of Representatives head assured his Romanian counterpart of the Belgian authorities’ support.
During the visit to Brussels, the Romanian senior official also had meetings with European Commissioner for Inter-Institutional Relations and Administration Maros Sefcovic and European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom.
The topics tackled during the talks targeted the future European elections, that will be a test for the citizens’ confidence in the European Union as well as Romania’s efforts to prevent and combat the human trafficking integrated to the directions of action outlined in the EU, the release said.
‘A credible message from the Union amid the European elections due in 2014 will depend on our capability of re-starting the economic growth, of providing new jobs. We must consolidate the basic pillars of the European construction and ensure the respect of the four fundamental freedoms on which the single market relies, including the freedom of movement. On the other hand, improved coordination of the European Parliament’s activity with the national parliaments’ activity could be useful with a view to providing greater legitimacy to the European decision-making process. The citizens must know they will vote for different Europe, capable of coping with the crisis not only by a set of regulations, but by unified institutional levers’, Zgonea pointed out.
The Romanian speaker and the EU officials stressed all the European institutions should take common action in order to promote the goal of consolidating the EU’s democratic legitimacy.AGERPRES
