Romanian Foreign Affairs Min Decided To Attend Dutch Parliament’s Session On Thursday

Minister of foreign affairs Cristian Diaconescu decided to participate on Thursday in the session of the Dutch Parliament, after a discussion on the phone with his Dutch counterpart on Wednesday evening, and after receiving clarifications from Dutch diplomats regarding the interpretations of the European Commission report on the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release on Wednesday evening.

Diaconescu had cancelled his visit to the Netherlands planned for Wednesday after the release there of a highly critical document targeting Romania and Bulgaria.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs was taken aback by learning from media the actions of the Dutch Government, namely the document sent to the Dutch Chamber of Representatives containing a public evaluation with radical views targeting the rule of law in Romania, as well as excessive interpretations of the European Commission report on the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism," said the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The ministry reminded “this public document surfaces on the eve of the Romanian foreign affairs minister’s visit to The Hague, a visit meant to clarify Dutch concerns regarding the European Commission report." The Foreign Ministry added the minister had cancelled his visit.

"The ministry sees the publishing of the document in question as an unfriendly and inadequate gesture in the relations between two members of the European Union. This gesture goes against the spirit and openness between the two states, underlined by excellent economic cooperation," the Ministry added.

At the same time, the Ministry expressed hope that this gesture would be followed by an explanation on diplomatic channels from the Dutch foreign affairs minister in accordance with the conduct that needs to be upheld between two EU member states.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs recently published a document stating “the new EU member states Romania and Bulgaria are still doing too little to tackle corruption and organized crime, and their management of EU funds is still below par.”

“The government will continue to press for improvements in both countries at European level. If this does not happen, it will have consequences for the transfer of EU funds to the two countries and their accession to the Schengen area,” the text reads.

“The government announced these conclusions today in its response to the progress report that the European Commission presented on 22 July under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) for the two countries.”

Under “shortcomings”, the document states: “The letter that European affairs minister Frans Timmermans, foreign minister Maxime Verhagen and justice minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin sent to the House of Representatives today identifies many shortcomings, including ‘the lack of political will to implement irreversible reforms’.”

The text goes on saying: “in September, at the request of the European Parliament, the European Commission will present a report focusing entirely on management of EU funds. Payments to Bulgaria were previously suspended owing to inadequate management. If it is found that this is still the case, the Netherlands will call for further measures. The government was already calling for measures in May, in a letter that Mr Timmermans sent to EU Justice Commissioner Jacques Barrot.”

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