Energy issues and the stimulation of competitiveness, on the agenda of the European Spring Council

Producer: Mira Gombos - The European Spring Council will start shortly in Brussels with an agenda devoted to energy issues and the stimulation of competitiveness. The war in Ukraine, however, dominates the first day of the meeting of the heads of state and government of the Union. The RRA envoy, Alina Stanuta, watched the statements made by President Klaus Iohannis.

Reporter: Romania will reiterate the need for unity in supporting Ukraine. We must help Ukraine as much as we can. It is very important for this country to have a strong position, and Romania helped the Ukrainians who came to us from the first day of the conflict, but also built a logistics system for the export of grain from Ukraine. President Klaus Iohannis indicated that, in the conclusions of the meeting, a relevant passage about the Republic of Moldova will be included, which will receive additional and substantial help from the European Union. It is inadmissible to leave Moldova prey to misinformation, hybrid attacks and verbal threats from Russia, the head of state said.

Regarding the aid that Romanian farmers received from the European Commission, worth ten million euros, Klaus Iohannis mentioned that Romania made huge sacrifices to facilitate grain exports from Ukraine to world markets and he does not understand the approach of the European Commission, which had to take this into account. At the beginning of this European Council, a meeting is held with the Secretary General of the UN, Antonio Guterres, with whom issues related to Ukraine and food security will be addressed. The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, will also participate online in the summit of European leaders, and the first point of the meeting concerns Ukraine. The energy crisis or migration are other topics on the agenda of the meeting in Brussels.

Translated by: Radu Matei