Today, June 28th c.y., the Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr. Lucian Nicolae BODE, had a meeting, at the MIA headquarters, with Mrs. Věra JOUROVÁ, Vice President of the European Commission, responsible for Values and Transparency. The meeting took place in the context of the official visits carried out in Romania by Mrs. Jourova, between June 27th-28th, 2022, which included meetings with the President of Romania, the Prime Minister of the Romanian Government and other officials of the Romanian state.
In the opening of the meeting, the Minister of Internal Affairs wanted to emphasize the fact that we are in a complicated international context, marked by the unprovoked and unjustified military aggression of Russia in Ukraine, an event that changed the European and international security context.
Thus, the Vice President of the European Commission expressed admiration for the way in which the Romanian authority manages the crisis generated by Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine and mentioned that Romania is in a special situation and deserves all the congratulations in this regard. At the same time, he mentioned about the importance of the support that the Ministry of Internal Affairs gives to the functioning of the EPPO, and to the management of the situations in which the journalists were threatened or intimidated.
Regarding Romania’s support for EPPO investigations, the Minister of European Affairs stressed upon the fact that Romania is among the first member states of the European Union that need to move forward and establish or cooperate more closely with this entity. He also informed the European official that in the near future police officers would be seconded to the special prosecutor’s office to support EPPO’s work. At the same time, he presented concrete examples regarding the activities carried out by Romanian police officers under the coordination of prosecutors from the European Prosecutor’s Office.
Regarding the management of refugees in Ukraine and their integration measures, the Minister of Internal Affairs mentioned that concrete actions have been taken at the MIA level, both in terms of humanitarian assistance and in terms of ensuring border security, but he wanted to specify that the effort to support Ukrainian refugees is substantial, ongoing, and involves significant state resources. He also underlined the exemplary involvement, together with the Romanian state institutions, of the civil society and of the private environment.
Finally, the two official representatives agreed to continue the very good cooperation so far, in the areas they manage.
