AGERPRES special correspondent to Berlin, Germany, Daniel Florea reports:
Romania’s budget should not be stingy with direct communication with the Romanians abroad, and the country has to somehow change the tack that it has been perpetuating for 32 years, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Tuesday on a working visit to Germany.
Ciolacu on Tuesday evening attended a meeting with leaders of the Romanian community in Germany as part of an event at the Romanian Embassy in Berlin.
“We have to work together – I don’t have the solutions today, after three weeks of premiership, I only have good faith and I have an extraordinary team, just like you have an extraordinary ambassador here – we have to find the solutions to still have communication between you and those at home. (…) With the economy minister, we will come up with a start-up programme for the diaspora. I know that it is almost impossible to convince you to return to Romania, especially after you have anchored yourself in the local society and your children are enrolled in school here and you’ve made it. Together we have to help those who do not have access to information regarding the right to work or their rights as citizens, to find the most effective levers,” said Ciolacu.
He added that the number of consulates should also increase where necessary.
“I hope we can build together. With the foreign minister and the future consuls we will try to increase the number of consulates if need be, maybe close some of them where there is no need for them. (…). Romania’s budget should not be stingy with direct communication with Romanians abroad. Regardless of whether this immense added value has left Romania, Romania is under an obligations to keep in touch with you and to find the necessary levers to you to feel anchored in decision-making not only politics, because you have the right to vote and it’s good to express it, even though you haven’t showered me from the Social Democratic Party (PSD) with votes,” said Ciolacu.
At the same time, the prime minister highlighted the fact that in Romania government decisions try to balance development areas.
“We are trying now, after 32 years – that is the truth – to develop infrastructure in our Moldavia, the place of the largest exodus of Romanians who went abroad after the ’90s. The lack of infrastructure has normally led to economic inefficiency and a lack of investment. We are trying to balance Romania’s development areas, so as to create equity in Romania, first and foremost,” said Ciolacu.
He also voiced hope that Romania will get over the “Schengen moment”.
“I hope that we will also get over the Schengen moment, that we will no longer queue when we come home from abroad for the holidays. It is work that will not be seen tomorrow, it is work that will be seen in time, but I think we all have a duty to get involved,” Ciolacu said.