On the last day of his official visit to Sweden, Romanian Foreign Minister Titus Corlatean held talks on Monday with his Swedish counterpart Carl Bildt and other officials. The agenda for talks included the EU enlargement, EU neighbourhood policy, the Eastern Partnership, the developments in the Western Balkans as well as the peace process in the Middle East. Furthermore Minister Corlatean gave an address in the opening of the Romanian-Swedish Chamber of Affairs at the Institution for International Relations in Stockholm.

Romanian Minister Delegate for Energy Constantin Nita is in China on an official visit until May 19th to hold talks regarding prospects of cooperation and investment in the energy sector. Constantin Nita has scheduled meetings with Beijing officials and will deliver lectures as part of the Romanian-Chinese Business Forum and at the International Congress for Nuclear Energy. The Romanian delegation also includes representatives of major energy companies in Romania.

Romania risks no longer accessing EU funds earmarked for the 2014-2020 period unless it implements, by the end of 2016, a strategy to improve its public administrative capacity, former European Commissioner for Multilingualism Leonard Orban has said. The Romanian official recalls that is an important prerequisite of using EU funds. In April Romania’s absorption rate stood at 13.43%. The overall amount allotted to Romania from the 2014-2020 budget is 39.9 billion euros.

Romanian Minister Delegate for Water, Forestry and Fishing Lucia Ana Varga is attending a two-day meeting of the EU Agriculture and Fisheries Council. Among others, Romania supports the bid of the Irish presidency in what regards the negotiation of a compulsory legal reference framework in the field of forestry at EU level. Attending the meeting is also State Secretary within the Agriculture Ministry Achim Irimescu. Talks will mainly focus on regulation proposals regarding the reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.