Image: French President Jacques Chirac and his Romanian counterpart Traian basescu, at the Elysee palace(Initially published in www. romania-report.ro -- Nov 22, 2005)
Paris, Nov 22 – French President Jacques Chirac on Monday assured his Romanian counterpart Traian Basescu of France's full support for Bucharest's bid to join the European Union. President Basescu said in an interview published Monday by ‘Le Figaro’ that the EU is having trouble ensuring its own security, while US and UK only show interest in the Black Sea region security.
Basescu, whose two-day trip included a working lunch Monday with French President Jacques Chirac, made forging close relations with Washington and London a priority during his 2004 presidential campaign.
Indeed Basescu bucked precedent by flying off to London, Moscow and Washington for his first official visit overseas. Previous Romanian leaders have gone to France. But today, the country is setting its sights to join the European Union in 2007 -- and France is a leading member of the bloc.
"France has always said that Romania was a part of Europe," Basescu said in an interview with Le Monde newspaper on the eve of his visit to Paris. "My country offers a market of 22 million consumers, where Western companies can set up without any problems because we adhere to and respect the idea of competition."
"The president of the republic recalled France's commitment" in support of Romania's candidacy, describing Romanians as "brothers in Europe", AFP quotes Chirac's office said following their talks at the Elysee palace.
During the meeting, Chirac "reiterated his wish to see Romania become a full EU member, which implies that it meet all of its obligations," the presidency said, adding that France would work with Romania to help it do so.
Romania and Bulgaria both hope to join the European Union in January 2007, but the bloc has voiced serious concerns about the pace of reforms -- in particular the fight against corruption -- in the former communist states.
The European Commission is to review the countries' progress in mid-2006 and has warned that it could push back their entry until 2008 unless they have made sufficient progress.
"Relations between France and Romania have traditionally been very good and we are laying the basis of future cooperation between our two countries within the European Union," Basescu said following the talks.
Romanian President Traian Basescu said in an interview published Monday that the European Union is having trouble ensuring its own security. The Romanian leader, who arrives Monday in Paris for a two-day visit, said only the United States and Britain are "really interested" in the security of the Black Sea states.
"I know some leaders will say the opposite, but I am obliged to state that only the Americans and the British are really interested in the countries neighboring the Black Sea," Basescu was quoted as saying in Monday's Le Figaro.
The EU, he said, "has trouble ensuring its security alone." Romania is scheduled to join the 25-member union in 2007, but the European Commission this month urged Bucharest to speed up efforts to tighten border security and fight high-level corruption.
Basescu declined to comment on the content of an upcoming military accord with the United States other than to say that "we must not think in terms of traditional bases of hundreds of thousands of men." As about the alleged secret CIA detention centres topics, Romania is prepared to allow investigations at two military bases to show they were not used by the, President Traian Basescu said in the same interview.
Basescu denied the U.S. intelligence agency had used any Romanian facilities in what the Washington Post said was a secret operation to hide al Qaeda captives in central and eastern Europe.
"I am categorical -- there are no such prisons in Romania," Basescu, who is visiting Paris for talks with President Jacques Chirac, told the French newspaper Le Figaro. "We are open to an investigation on the bases of Timisoara and Kogalniceanu which are suspected of housing such prisons," he added, but gave no further details. The U.S. Army used the airbase near Mihail Kogalniceanu village in southeastern Romania as a hub to send equipment and troops into Iraq during the early stages of the 2003 invasion, and temporarily kept up to 3,500 American troops there.
Romania Report & wires
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