The European Commissioner Roxana Mânzatu in Bucharest
The European Commission vice-president Roxana Mânzatu (RO) had talks with political leaders in Bucharest.
Bogdan Matei, 05.02.2025, 14:00
Shortly after taking office, the European Commissioner nominated by Romania, Roxana Mânzatu, visited her home country in an official capacity.
A member of the Social Democratic Party (in the ruling coalition) since 2000, when she was 20 years old, a former Deputy in the national parliament and a former MEP, with a brief term as minister for European funds, the Romanian politician is one of the vice-presidents of the new European Commission, in charge with “People, Skills and Preparedness”. In this capacity, she said, she manages around 20% of the European Union’s multiannual budget.
At a meeting in Bucharest on Tuesday with Romania’s acting president, Klaus Iohannis, she discussed the role of education in fighting disinformation and manipulation, as well as in strengthening the democratic resilience of European societies.
According to the Romanian Presidency, the head of state pointed out that areas such as artificial intelligence, security and defence have a major social component, and the success of these policies depends on society’s preparation and knowledge.
One of the topics discussed with the Social-Democratic PM Marcel Ciolacu and his ministers of labour, European funds and education was the so-called “Compass”, a plan by Brussels to restore EU competitiveness. “We cannot be competitive without well-trained human resources and without good working conditions. The point of this compass is to guide future policies, financing (…) We prioritize new technologies, innovation, access to financing, the elimination of cumbersome administrative procedures, a lot of simplification, coordination between member states. But we can only do all this if we have workforce that is prepared and motivated to work in the respective sectors,” Commissioner Mânzatu argued.
In February, she announced, the EC will launch the Clean Industrial Deal, a plan for the industrial decarbonisation of the continent, which she claims is “pragmatic, focused on interventions in important sectors that can ensure strategic autonomy for the European economy.” The automotive industry, among other sectors, is taken into account, which Roxana Mânzatu says is very relevant for Romania, has ensured Europe’s global leadership and provides 13 million jobs in the Union.
In an exclusive interview for Radio Romania, Roxana Mânzatu said she regretted that there are not enough Romanian beneficiaries in the research and innovation areas in the relevant programmes launched by the Commission. “I told all my colleagues, we are fully open to working even better with European money, so that people can feel the impact of these funds even more,” the Commission vice-president concluded. (AMP)
