Angela Merkel:

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I am very glad that today, my guest is the Prime Minister of Romania, Mr. Victor Popa, it is the first visit of Prime Minister to Germany. We will speak about the bilateral relations, the European issues. With respect to bilateral relations, there is a close partnership between the Federal Republic of Germany and Romania. There are very many ties, due to the German minority too, and I am glad that a representative of German minority, Mr. Ovidiu Gant is member of the Romanian delegation, which shows that we have very many things in common. We will speak about economic and political relations too, which are characterized by friendship.
We have very much collaboration at economic level, we are the most important trade partner of Romania, but there is still potential to develop these relations. I want the economic construction of the country to be successful. We want Germany and the German economy to be a partner. For the German economy, it is very important that the standards of the rule of law be observed, and there be legal safety, transparency and the corruption be combated.
With respect to this issue, Prime Minister spoke before this discussion, with representatives of the German economic environment. We will address the European problems on the financial perspective for the Central and Eastern Europe too, among which, for Romania, it is very important that these countries depend to a large extent, on the continuity of these financial plans on the average term. Regarding the structural and other funds, I think that we will have good, intense discussions this evening and once again, I wish you welcome to Germany!

Victor Ponta:
I would like to thank Madam Chancellor Merkel for the invitation and for this opportunity to have a first bilateral meeting since my appointment as Prime Minister. My main message to the German Government is that Romania –after few years of economic, social, political crisis – it regained stability and wants to be again a strategic and trustworthy partner for Germany. A stable, democratic and strong Romania can be indeed a partner for Germany and Europe, at the Eastern border of the European Union. First of all, we will discuss about the bilateral economic cooperation and I thanked on today’s meetings, the German investors for their important contribution to the development of Romania. I also want to express the decision of the Government and the ruling coalition on the rule of law consolidation, the fight against corruption and our determination to have a very transparent and efficient legislative framework. I personally and the Executive I am leading, firmly believe in the European path of Romania and the fact that we should all be partners in building the future European project. I will also want, on this meeting, to express Romania’s desire to coordinate itself with Germany and the rest of the European Union in all regional policies, regarding the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Western Balkans countries, there where is the need to back the pro-European, pro-democratic and pro-development direction.