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00:00Well, Niko Shurdan, President of Romania, thank you so much for speaking to us at the sidelines of the EU
00:04leaders meeting here in Cyprus.
00:06I'd like to begin with the topic of the energy crisis that Europe is currently experiencing.
00:11There have been some discussions, obviously, at the European level, what action should be taken.
00:16I'd like to get first your view of how serious this crisis is and what impact it is going to
00:21have on Romania.
00:22First of all, as all the specialists are saying, it's extremely serious.
00:27Romania had some advantages.
00:31For instance, for gas, we are producing 90% of what we are consuming.
00:38And on oil and products from oil, we are producing 25%.
00:44But we have some refineries on the Black Sea border.
00:51So we are better than other countries.
00:55And in the next future, next year, we will begin to extract gas from the Black Sea.
01:03And so it will be much more stable than the others.
01:10But of course, we are concerned on what will happen, not in the next two, three months,
01:16but what will happen in the next five, six months, it will continue.
01:22And thinking about what the measures that should be taken at the European level,
01:25there's a debate happening and the conversation is becoming a little clearer.
01:29There were discussions now about windfall tax on energy companies to help pay for some of the measures.
01:34Also a discussion about state aid rules.
01:37Also a discussion about EU funding rules relaxing.
01:40Where do you sit on those issues?
01:41What measures should be taken at the European level?
01:44So, again, we are talking on short-term and medium-term.
01:50On short-term, what the paper that the European Commission released last day said that we have to cooperate.
02:03So, we have to have, in the current time, to have the situation in all the states,
02:13a sort of European observer or what happened on all the market.
02:19Also, not much European money, but relax on how the...
02:33nation can spend money in order to protect different categories of people
02:38or different categories of company like transport ones.
02:44On the medium and long term, here there is a program which is related with MFF
02:52on how to connect.
02:56So, our plan is to have to finalize the unique market.
03:05But unique market means also a unique European energy market network that we have to invest in.
03:18And one of the other debates that is beginning really in earnest now with the departure of Viktor Orban in
03:23Hungary
03:24is the question of Ukraine joining the European Union, the accession talks.
03:28What is, do you think, a realistic timeline for Ukraine joining the EU?
03:32What would you like to see?
03:36Well, first of all, it's very good that we have finished that loan, which is extremely important for Ukraine.
03:45We had yesterday President Zelenskyy that explained to us that on the war field,
03:53the things are much better than one year ago than two years ago.
03:58So, that's a good thing.
04:01On the accession process, of course, we have the accession of Ukraine, the accession of Moldova.
04:09And we are very interested because we have the same culture, the same field, mental field with the Moldavians.
04:22So, we are very interested in the accession of Moldova.
04:27So, we will support any kind of arrangement that two countries will go as fast as possible in the European
04:35Union.
04:36And thinking about also the departure of Viktor Orban in Hungary,
04:39obviously there's a large Hungarian population within Romania.
04:42I'd like to have your idea of what a sort of restarted relationship would look like with Hungary.
04:48Have you spoken to Peter Magyar? What is that conversation like?
04:53I just, I sent to Peter Magyar a message saying that,
04:59look, I do not call you because I know what happened after winning.
05:05And he answered me.
05:06So, we do not have, so, we have a good, good relation.
05:13So, the Hungarian minority is very well represented.
05:18They have, they are currently in the parliament, their representatives.
05:24So, I think there is space in order to develop the relation, but it is quite good, the bilateral one.
05:38And then another relationship of great interest in Europe is a relationship with the United States.
05:43We've had a lot of commentary from President Trump recently calling NATO a paper tiger
05:48and these sorts of criticisms and threatening to pull out of NATO.
05:51I'd like to get your perspective on the state of NATO at the moment
05:55and also the discussions around Article 42.7.
05:59Do you need an independent sort of mutual security arrangement within Europe?
06:04Does that need to be taken more seriously at this time?
06:07So, we, inside the European Union, we are one of the biggest supporters of the transatlantic relation
06:16because we understand that our security, the Europe's security, depends a lot on NATO
06:25and directly on the United States.
06:30Of course, so, you know all the context.
06:33There was a, for years, there was a disbalance between the expenses for the security between the United States and
06:43Europe.
06:44On the last NATO summit, we agreed to increase the expenses.
06:51There are tensions, of course, we know all, but we are one of the supporters that Europe and the United
07:00States
07:00have to go together in the trade in the main directions.
07:10And bilaterally, Romania and the United States, the relation is very, very robust.
07:17Yes.
07:17And I saw that also, obviously, Romania is one of the European nations
07:21that did allow the Americans to use bases in their activity in Iran.
07:25There's been some threats of punishments for countries that did not.
07:30Do you think there's a chance of reward for Romania for doing so?
07:33Have you had those conversations with the Trump administration?
07:37There are, yeah, so in the last year, there have been a lot of discussion on all-level ministerial advisory.
07:51And I think that that partnership is increasing, and we are looking for a development on the economical field.
08:09And there is much interest on the American side in order to come in Romania.
08:15And what kind of new discussions are you having with the United States about building the economic relationship?
08:21As I mentioned before, we will begin to extract.
08:25We will be the biggest producer of natural gas in Europe, so that gives some opportunities.
08:32So American companies could be involved in that?
08:34Yes, we are one of the supporters of that so-called vertical corridor.
08:40So to replace the natural gas from Russia to the American LNG.
08:48And that will be a corridor starting from Greece and going up to Ukraine and going to the east and
09:02west, Ukraine, Moldova, Slovakia, and so forth.
09:05So we are advancing on that, on the critical materials, on AI, on nuclear.
09:10So there are a lot of fields that we are progressing.
09:13Many fields of cooperation.
09:14And also a question about arms deliveries from the United States.
09:17I've spoken to a few other leaders who said that they have been basically paused because of the war.
09:22In Iran, are you having that experience on things like ammunition?
09:25Is the United States pausing some of those deliveries?
09:27Yes, yes.
09:28Not pausing, but we are in a key waiting for, for instance, for some patriot systems.
09:38And I want to talk about the political situation in Romania right now.
09:41You brought some stability to the situation when you were elected.
09:44Now that stability seems to have gone away.
09:46What do you see as the path forward for politics domestically?
09:49Do you think that there's a path to having a government once again?
09:53Well, it's democracy, yes.
09:57In fact, in the parliament, we have one-third anti-occidental people and two-thirds pro-occidental people.
10:10And we have four parties that form a government.
10:14Different parties, different kind of followers.
10:18Inner intentions, so now we have a crisis.
10:23But what's important that any of that four countries and also the national minority that are represented in parliament,
10:32they want to keep the pro-occidental way.
10:37So, in a way or in another, we will keep the pro-occidental way.
10:43And then another very sort of large concern for you and one of the priorities is to unlock some of
10:48the European money that will expire in the month of August.
10:51That might be difficult if there's a lot of political arguing within Romania.
10:55Are you confident that you will be able to get access to that 8 billion euros that will expire in
11:00August?
11:01Yeah.
11:03You must suspect that I've talked with the representative of all the parties.
11:07And there are agreements on the SAFE program because we have also a deadline in the end of May, so
11:19next month we have an agreement.
11:22And also we have an agreement to pass all the necessary laws orders in order to have at most the
11:34money possible.
11:35And thinking also just more broadly in European politics, we've talked a lot about European competitiveness.
11:41We've talked a lot about the Draghi Report, which everybody loves.
11:44And yet they don't want to talk about certain aspects of it, which is a more federated Europe, a more
11:49something closer to the United States of Europe.
11:51You've run your political campaign on a much more pro-European sort of message.
11:56How do you sell that message domestically and more widely where a lot of nations in Europe are struggling to
12:02do that right now?
12:03Yeah, yeah, so when we are talking on federalizing, we must split between economics and some part of administration and
12:21politics.
12:23And if we do so, I think it's very, so I'm saying currently in Romania, it's a very, very simple
12:34rule in economics.
12:36So you are more efficient if you are bigger.
12:42So that's as Draghi and Lata reports are saying that part of the uncompetitiveness of the of the Europe is
12:52that the fact that the economies are splitting.
12:55So, and the reaction of the Romanian people are very, they understand very, very well that on the political question,
13:06on the on the foreign politics, which is related with sovereignty, it's a different question.
13:14But on the economy and administration, I think the people are quite relaxed.
13:22And just a final question on the Strait of Hormuz.
13:24We've heard from President Trump asking for help from the Europeans, sometimes, other times saying we don't need their help.
13:29There's been a call and discussions at the sort of highest level led by Emmanuel Macron and Keir Starmer.
13:34It's not very clear what is being offered by the Europeans and what is being asked for by the United
13:39States.
13:40Can you give us a little bit more clarity on that conversation and the debate and what Europe's role you
13:45think could be in the Strait of Hormuz?
13:47I think that coalition is a pragmatic one.
13:52So, and the first sign of being pragmatic is that it do not want to interfere in the conflict.
14:02And so, that coalition is saying, which is very large, is saying that we will go there when there will
14:15be at least a ceasefire.
14:17And from now on, that there are specialist planners to plan how to act in order to free the way
14:31as fast as possible.
14:34And I think that being, in some sense, neutral on the two sides of that, or three sides of that
14:47war, that coalition have better chances to free the navigation.
14:55President Dan, thank you so much for your time.
14:57Greatly appreciated.
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