Romanian Prime Minister received by King Felipe of Spain

Romanian Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă has been received, on Thursday, in Madrid, by His Majesty King Felipe VI of Spain. Prior to this meeting, Head of the Romanian Government and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have signed two bilateral agreements in the areas of public administration and defense.

Agreement in the field of defense refers to future exchanging expertise and joint military drills.

Romania considers the relationship with Spain to be a privileged one and wants to hold a joint government meeting. Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă thanked for the attitude of the Spanish authorities and society towards the Romanian community in Spain, which counts about one million people.

Romanian and Spanish Prime Ministers hailed the two states' excellent economic cooperation, on an upward trend both in terms of economic exchanges, which stand at around 4 billion euro, and of the amount of Spanish investments in Romania. The evolution of bilateral trade confirms a growing economic relationship.

Romanian Prime Minister also underlined that Romania has a stable and attractive economic environment, expressing appreciation for the Spanish companies' investments in Romania, especially in the field of renewable energies, constructions and real estate. Prime Minister Viorica Dăncilă also encouraged the participation of Spanish companies in the tenders organized by the Romanian authorities for projects funded under the ongoing operational programs, as well as the participation in public-private partnership investment projects or in the program for the privatization of Romanian state-owned companies.

Talks confirmed the interest of both states in further developing a privileged relationship between the two countries. In this respect, the two officials agreed to continue efforts towards the organization of the first joint government meeting, including by identifying new opportunities for sectoral cooperation, states the Romanian Government in a press release.

Spain supports Romania's accession to the Schengen area and Romanian PM expressed thanks for this.

The two heads of government also talked about positioning of their countries in the eastern and southern neighborhood of the European Union, also about illegal migration, a sensitive issue for Spain.

Agenda of the two-day visit had no meeting of Prime Minister Dăncilă with representatives of the Romanian community in Spain. Some of them manifested with anti-governmental placards, dissatisfied with the situation created during the protests of August 10 in Bucharest. Spanish police scattered the demonstrators. In this context, there was an incident at the Romanian Embassy in Madrid, according to RRA correspondent in Madrid, Annamaria Damian.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei