Romanian-Bavarian cooperation
Romania and the Land of Bavaria work on strengthening bilateral ties.
Ştefan Stoica, 14.02.2023, 13:50
The economic, political and cultural ties and the support for Romania’s accession to the Schengen area have dominated the agenda of the Bavarian PM Markus Soder’s visit to Bucharest. Trade between Romania and Germany’s federal state of Bavaria accounted for almost 7 billion euros last year. Romanian PM, Nicolae Ciuca, believes that the parties can explore new cooperation domains such as AI, digitization, food industry and agriculture. The Romanian PM said, on the other hand, that Bucharest can count on Bavaria’s support to join Schengen, an objective the country had failed to reach last year, due to Austria’s opposition. Markus Soder said he would do his best to convince Austrian officials to reconsider their decision. He said: We support Romania on its path to joining Schengen. It is very important that we, in Europe, understand that here, given the situation with Ukraine and Russia, challenges are at an entirely different level; we should not be preaching but we should support and appreciate each other. I have seen the efforts that were made and which would help Europe. There are no first and second hand EU members. We are all equal and we should support each other if we want to succeed.
The German official also assured President Klaus Iohannis of Bavaria’s support for Romania’s Schengen accession. Iohannis emphasised the strong political, economic and cultural ties between Romania and Bavaria and hailed the signing by the two prime ministers, of the Declaration regarding the consolidation of bilateral ties, which includes resuming the activity of the Romania-Bavaria Joint Governmental Commission this year in Munich. Markus Söder reiterated the interest in further investing in Romania’s economy, given that Bavaria is first among the German lands as regards investment, alongside trade.
The parties plan to develop cooperation in the field of renewable energy and green transition and also in the digital, AI and biomedicine domains. The two high officials agree that the German minority in Romania, which President Klaus Iohannis is a member of, alongside the Romanian community in Germany, play the important role of catalyst in the dialogue between the two countries. According to Markus Söder, Bavaria is home to the largest Romanian community in Germany, an example of integration and active involvement in the social and cultural life. Iohannis and Soder also discussed about the security situation and reaffirmed their support for Ukraine which has been subject to Russian aggression for more than a year. (EE)
