Press statements by Prime Minister Victor Ponta and the Secretary -General of the Council of Europe, Mr. Thorborn Jagland

Mr. Thorborn Jagland, Secretary -General of the Council of Europe:
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great honor to welcome Prime Minister of Romania, particularly because we are the year of the twentieth anniversary of Romania’s accession to the Council of Europe. I would like to say here that Romania is a very good, constructive member of the Council of Europe, and we are working closely together on many things which also in the future, will be in Romania’s power.
I was recently in Bucharest, a visit that was very constructive and produced some very good results. For instance, today, I have said that the Council of Europe now is ready to respond positively to the offer from the Romanian Government to host the Council of Europe Cybercrime Combat Office.
When I was in Bucharest, we discussed the law on the restitution of properties, we came to an agreement, and you said you need a little bit more time to look into the law, which has been done and I am glad to see that the law has now been adopted by the Romanian Parliament.
We discussed also the Roma issue, and after my meeting with Prime Minister at that time, we went to a neighboring area in Bucharest to look at a very important project there, bring Roma to school and we have discussed now about how this project can be used as an example and to duplicate this project not only in Romania but also in other places. We discussed about how we can use a partnership between the European Union, Romania and the Council of Europe in order to bring more resource to the Roma people from the ground, how to work on the ground to improve conditions for the Roma people.
So, again, welcome Prime Minister to the Council of Europe, I was very pleased to see you again, I wish you all the best here, in Strasbourg, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary and to look for the future.

PM Victor Ponta: Thank you very much, Secretary - General. I would also like to express my satisfaction and my gratitude for having today’s opportunity, to first of all address the General Assembly, and to meet the President, the Secretary -General, the representatives of the Venice Commission, and exactly like you have mentioned, I would like to express exactly in front of the members of the General Assembly, the satisfaction for Romania being already for 20 years a full and respected member of the Council of Europe, for the positive role the Council of Europe has played for assisting Romania to become a democratic rule of law.
I also have the opportunity to express my gratitude for the very balanced and fair role you had last year in assisting the Romanian politicians and Romanian institutions to find the best solutions for the country and for achieving the European standards. All the projects that we have been working together are very positive projects, I am very grateful for helping us in improving the implementation of the strategy regarding the Roma minority but also your assistance in important cases – the law on the restitution of properties.
Immediately after this meeting, I will have other meeting with the Venice Commission, asking for their assistance and help in drawing a good change in some provisions of the new Constitution, respecting all the European standards. I will also use the opportunity to express my country’s commitment to democracy, rule of law, our positive role in the region and to express my conviction that the Council of Europe has been in all these years and should be in the future, the main institution drawing rules and standards in human rights, in rule of law, and having this positive role not only for the members of the European Union but for all the 47 members of the Council of Europe, and we will count on your partnership and assistance in improving the democratic rules, the democratic standards, and the rule of law in Romania.
Thank you very much. I will express my thanks and gratitude in front of the General Assembly and thank you very much for your visit to Bucharest.