Visit by the Foreign Secretary to Romania

A visit by the Foreign Secretary is an important moment for any Ambassador or High Commissioner, providing opportunities for working with the host government at the most senior level, and a spur to host authorities to think about the bilateral relationship with the United Kingdom and how to develop it.

And so I was delighted to welcome Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond to Bucharest this week, for meetings with President Iohannis, Prime Minister Ponta and Foreign Minister Aurescu, a visit which took place as we prepare to mark 135 years of bilateral relations with Romania. The visit underlined our excellent cooperation in the defence and security area, providing an opportunity to discuss the implementation of the commitments made at the NATO Summit in Wales and to exchange perspectives on responding to aggressive Russian behaviour in Ukraine.

The Foreign Secretary was also able to set out our vision of Europe’s future, of a European Union which is more competitive, more accountable and more fair.

The imperative of making the EU more globally competitive ran through the discussions. The Foreign Secretary emphasised that, while the single market was a great EU success, the task of building it was far from complete. There was much to do to create a genuine single market in services, digital and energy. It was important too to reduce the burden of unnecessary regulation, which hampered businesses from creating growth and jobs. The Foreign Secretary underlined that, if Romania was to attract more inward investment, including from the UK, it was important to tackle corruption and create a more stable and predictable legislative environment. And we needed to open new opportunities for European business abroad by completing ambitious trade deals, above all the TTIP with the USA, which the Foreign Secretary noted would create a single market accounting for 46% of the world’s GDP.

The EU needed to be more democratically accountable too. Turnout at the last European parliamentary elections in Romania was just 32.4%, a lower figure than in the UK. Decisions should be taken as close to the citizen as possible, using the Dutch mantra of “Europe where necessary, national where possible”. And the EU needed to be fair both in respect of those member states which form part of the Eurozone and those outside it. A Europe in which all member states participate fully in decisions which affect all.