President Dan: Romania, ready to offer its experience to countries that want to join the EU

Romania wants to have European Union member states as neighbors and is ready to offer its experience to countries that want to join the European family, declared today, at the Timisoara Cities Summit, the President of Romania, Nicusor Dan.

The Head of State believes that the Union must be attractive enough for societies in these states to put pressure on the authorities to finalize their accession to the Union.

Nicusor Dan: The question that arises is: why do societies in these countries not put enough pressure on political decision-makers to make this process happen faster? Perhaps the answer to this question lies within the Union itself. Maybe we are not competitive enough, maybe we are not economically flexible enough, maybe because of this we are not, as I said, attractive enough for these countries, for the societies in their countries to put pressure on reforms that would bring them to the stage of being included in the Union, and this is a topic that each of us must reflect on.

Nicusor Dan also said, in his opinion, that the power relationship between large cities and European states is unbalanced, since cities are the ones that bring economic value and progress. But, the president declared, national authorities do not recognize this fact, so that resources that would make these cities develop are not allocated.

Nicusor Dan emphasized that it is necessary for large cities to create a network in which they can try to impose their point of view at the European level and promised to support in the European Council that cities have a more important role.

Translated by: Radu Matei