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The visit of the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, the first French President to visit our country after the adherence to the EU, was a short one, it lasted 5 hours and ended with a “Strategic Partnership” between the two countries.
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The visit of the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, the first French President to visit our country after the adherence to the EU, was a short one, it lasted 5 hours and ended with a “Strategic Partnership” between the two countries.
The context of the visit is related to the relation of the French-Romanian relations, one of the main reasons that determined Sarkozy to visit Bucharest as he emphasized at the beginning of the press conference at the Cotroceni Palace in which he took part together with president Basescu. Also, Sarkozy came to activate the traditional relations between the two countries especially in the perspective of the six-month French leadership of the EU that is to start in July. “I want to thank Mr. President Nicolas Sarkozy for informing me about the priorities of France as president of the EU and I will use this opportunity to inform you that France will have all the support from Romania for the integral fulfilling of all the objectives”, Basescu stated.
MAIN THEMES
The President also explained that the “strategic partnership” that the two Presidents have signed “covers the most important areas of the bilateral relations like the political dialogue or the partnership for economical development. In the same time, our strategic relation will include university and scientific mobility, the free movement of the people, defense and security at European level. These are the most important themes and aspects of the strategic partnership. I can assure you that Romania will be a great partner for France and we will make this five-year partnership real in accordance to the terms agreed by the two governments”. In his turn, Sarkozy wanted to emphasize that “Romania is a country that matters in Europe, having the 7th population of the union and we, France, represent the third commercial partner of Romania. I told President Basescu that the fact that Romania has been a member of the EU for only one year doesn’t mean that it has fewer rights than the other members”.
NO WORDS ABOUT CORRUPTION
Asked about the lack of commercial agreements during this visit, which AFP referred to as areas affected by the corruption in Romania, Sarkozy didn’t reply. He wrote the question down but he allowed Traian Basescu to answer. “I believe this is a speculation of the press in Romania. According to the Constitution, the Romanian President cannot sign commercial papers. I believe the French President is in the same situation. Our mission is to stimulate areas for the development of the economical relations, but not to sign commercial agreements”, Basescu said.
Sarkozy preferred answering only to the part regarding the signing of this agreement with Romania. “Romania is a friend of France. France has always supported Romania during the adherence process because it is a very important country (…) so I believe we have every reason to sign this strategic partnership. The Romanians have been the first to sign this partnership”, he explained.
EDGY
The French President got a little edgy when the journalist from Le Monde asked him about his fall in the polls. “I would have liked to hear a much better question. You were the ones who said there are not too many good reasons for this to happen so, if you have a better question, please ask me”, he spoke sharply to the reporter.
• Translated by Sorin Bălan
