Romania Calls For Speedier Gap Reduction Btw Old EU Member States And Newcomers

Romanian President Traian Basescu on Friday said efforts should be stepped up to reduce gaps between the European Union’s old member states and newcomers, arguing that competitiveness in the EU can never grow "if major imbalances are kept between Northern, Southern, Eastern and Western Europe.”

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"Romania is highly focused on the four fundamental liberties defining the local market in general and the fundamental liberty defining the free movement of workforce, in particular," said Basescu.

Basescu also said Friday, during debates regarding Romania and the Europe 2020 Strategy, that "Romania sees the cohesion policy as an EU instrument of utmost important in implementing the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, at national, local or regional level."

The head of state stressed that one cannot increase competitiveness within the EU if major imbalances are maintained between the northern, southern, eastern and western parts of Europe.

Moreover, Basescu could not help wondering whether or not there are enough EU funds to reduce gaps between the EU's old member states and newcomers.

He added that funds needed to implement the Europe 2020 Strategy will be covered by EU's financial instruments and by national funds "or, better said, mainly by national funds".

Basescu also said Friday he is skeptical about Romania being able to meet some of the targets set under the Europe 2020 Strategy, namely, to assign 3% of the gross domestic product for the Research-Development (R&D) sector. Basescu, however, could not help wondering whether or not the local R&D sector would be able to use 3% of GDP efficiently.

"To be able to politically assume the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, Romania decided to set up a high-level work group that will first set the national objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy," said Basescu adding that "the values of national targets will be adopted on April 29, as on May 3, the Romanian delegation will hold talks with European Commission officials to set the national objectives resulted from the objectives set at European level.

He underscored, however, that the objectives set at European level don't necessarily translate into national objectives.

The EC has launched the Europe 2020 Strategy to go out of the crisis and prepare EU economy for the next decade. The EC identifies three key drivers for growth, to be implemented through concrete actions at EU and national levels: smart growth (fostering knowledge, innovation, education and digital society), sustainable growth (making our production more resource efficient while boosting our competitiveness) and inclusive growth (raising participation in the labor market, the acquisition of skills and the fight against poverty).

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