Italian Prime Minister visits Bucharest

The outgoing Italian Prime Minister Paulo Gentiloni on Thursday paid a visit to Bucharest

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Daniela Budu, 20.04.2018, 13:03

Romania and Italy are strategic partners that support the idea of a united and powerful Europe animated by solidarity, these are the conclusions of the meeting between the Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni and the Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, hosted by Bucharest. Talks focused on bilateral relations, which both sides consider privileged, on economic cooperation, which is excellent, and on the role of Italians’ and Romanians’ emigration. President Iohannis appreciated the situation of the Romanian citizens in Italy, saying that they are not only accepted but also well integrated.

Klaus Iohannis: “We are both very happy and content that the Italian and Romanian communities alike are not only accepted but also very well integrated. The Italian citizens are very welcome to Romania and they have integrated well into the Romanian society. They form a large business community. The Romanian community in Italy numbers 1,300,000 people, it is an equally well integrated community and very well accepted in Italy.”

Klaus Iohannis appreciated the very good relation between Romania and Italy in many domains, and mentioned the two countries’ almost identical views on European policy. The two officials also tackled the future of the community space as well as the future Romanian presidency of the EU Council to start on January 1, 2019. The Italian PM Paolo Gentiloni underlined that managing migration should be one of the EU’s top priorities. According to Paolo Gentiloni, Europeans should insist on continuing on the community path and approach the migration issue in a coherent manner, and he believes that Italy has done its part in this regard. Italy has made a great effort, and this should be one of the EU’s top priorities, so as to be able to gradually deal with this phenomenon, the Italian PM added.

Paolo Gentiloni also met with PM Viorica Dăncilă and discussed mainly the positive economic trends in the two countries and the need to give a new impetus to bilateral relations. The Romanian PM said that Italy is a strategic partner for Romania, as the volume of bilateral trade exchange reached almost 14 billion Euros in 2017, which is a record level for the past 10 years. Also, Italy is interested in investing in Romania in such domains as agriculture, technological innovation, energy and defense.

They also talked about the Romanian community in Italy and the Italian community in Romania. The two prime ministers have agreed that, following the formation of the new Italian government, a common meeting should be held at government level, which might consolidate and diversify cooperation in important fields such as security, defense, economy, energy, the environment, healthcare and others.