 Okay. Good afternoon, everybody. It's a pleasure to welcome everybody. I'm John O'Brennan from Melluth University, and it's a pleasure to be able to chair today's talk. In a moment I'll introduce the Minister, but if I could just begin with some housekeeping. Just to remind everybody that you should turn off your mobile phones or at least switch them to silent. You are encouraged to dweud y ffordd yma. Rydyn ni'n gwybod y ffordd yma yn ddod am y Chathol Hws Gwrth, a i'n ddiweddio i'r ffordd yma o'r ffordd yr erbyn i'r hyfforddiadau, ac yn ystod yw ni'n gweithio'r cyhoeddiadau. Nid yw, mae'n fflaen nhw'n ddweud hwnnw i fynd i'r Minister Roeddach Rhyw Gaerdydd a Gweithwyr Victor is a member of the Social Democratic Party of Romania. He served previously before he had a career as a digital entrepreneur and then was elected to the European Parliament for the PSD in 2014. He served for three years before being appointed to his current position as the Romanian minister delegate for European Affairs. It is the latest event that we've held on the future of Europe and the institute has been particularly keen to welcome our visitors from different parts of Europe. But in recent weeks we welcomed, for example, the Bulgarian Minister for European Affairs during the Bulgarian presidency. Romania, of course, will take up the presidency of the European Union Council on the 1st of January next year. For those who may be interested, actually, the Romanian presidency has already produced a very wonderful website, one of the best that I've actually seen thus far. And a really interesting logo with the wolf representing the European Union and Romanian-EU relations. Maybe the minister would say more about that. Okay, the opening presentation is going to be on the record. The minister will speak for 20-25 minutes or so, and then he'll take questions, which will be under Chattelhouse. So with that, it's a great pleasure to welcome Minister Negrescu. Thank you so much. I would like to thank the organizers for having this conference today and this discussion today about the future of the European Union and also about the upcoming presidency that Romania is going to have of the European Union Council. I'm here today, of course, to speak about those two elements by starting our discussion today on an open reflection on the need to discuss about the future of the European Union. In this reality, in this fact, of course, there are different things that are being laid down on the table when it comes to the reflection on the future of the European Union. There are discussions about possible divisions between East, West, North, South. There are discussions about having a one-speed Europe or a several-speed Europe. There are discussions about having more social policies or less social initiatives at European level. There are discussions about security policies or the need to focus more on NATO cooperation. So a lot of things laid down on the table today that will imply for us to give an answer. In this regard, of course, Romania is trying to have a constructive and positive contribution to this debate by presenting its own point of view but in the same time listening to the different positions of the different member states while in the same time preparing for the upcoming presidency. Because we know quite well that our presidency is going to be done at the key moment. We are going to have the presidency, of course, at the end of the mandate of the current commission and the current European Parliament. We are going to have the presidency when Brexit probably is going to happen. We are going to have the presidency when we'll have the conclusions of the consultations about the future of Europe. We are going to have the presidency during the debates about the next multi-annual financial framework. So a lot of key moments during our presidency that implies, of course, for us to understand that the responsibility that is in front of us. The need for us to be really prepared for this presidency that is not only a Romanian presidency. It will be for sure and has to be a European presidency knowing the context when it is going to take place. So our message generally is that we have to go beyond divisions in trying to identify those elements that are that unite us. Those elements that bring us together. Those elements that, of course, represent arguments for us to continue working together at the European level. And when discussing about this need of creating bridges, bridges between east, west, north, south, bridges of communication, we identify an element that seems to be common for everyone. Common for member states, but also common for governments. They need to be accountable in front of citizens. They need to identify those elements, those policies that bring benefit to citizens in their daily lives. And of course in the same time bringing Europe closer to its citizens. Because again, like I said earlier, we have to be accountable in front of them. In this fact, of course, starting from this fact, it's key for us to involve them all the way. The public consultation, the citizens consultation that are being conducted across Europe can represent the first step in this regard in order, of course, to bring EU citizens closer to the European decision making process. And in the same time promoting what the European Union is doing for them and what is added value of this common project. And in this regard, of course, we are trying to prepare and we have done a lot in the last couple of months to prepare for our presidency. It will be our first presidency. And of course we decided to orientate our presidency towards citizens. We would present our presidency as being a citizen-centered presidency. Because we want to put on the table of the discussion those topics of common interest that are of bring benefits in the daily lives of people in order to increase the legitimacy of the European project, the relevance of the European project and also stimulate dialogue and stimulate basically a conversation between member states. An active dialogue, an active conversation about the European Union. Because like I said earlier, we have the presidency at the key moment. And during our presidency we will have the European elections. We are going to celebrate the 40th anniversary seeing the first direct elections for the European Parliament. And we have to remind people that European democracy wasn't built easily. But also that the European democracy exists if they take advantage of the opportunities that are available for them. Like for instance, simply attending the European elections and participating and voting for whoever they believe should lead the European Union. So indeed taking advantage of that context is important of course to bring the European project closer to the local level. And involving local authorities, local communities also absolutely key in increasing the support for this common project. Romania of course is likely enough to have a population that supports highly the European project close to 80% of our citizens support the European project. So therefore we believe our message could be delivered at European level using the momentum of the presidency but also using the momentum of the debates about the future of the European Union. And we are not only speaking about that. We also want to show that we are doing things about that, about involving stakeholders when it comes to defining the future of the European Union. So for instance our presidency priorities that have been already defined have resulted from a list of consultations, thematic consultations that have been conducted in a very intensive way. We had about 500 stakeholders participating working actually in building those priorities. So not conferences but really working groups, working with relevant stakeholders having debates, having sessions to really build our priorities because if we want to speak about a more citizens oriented European Union we have to show that this is possible and we have already made the first initial steps in this direction. Of course we are participating to the public consultation, the citizens consultation format. We are one of the biggest promoters of this model. This is a picture from the first consultation that we did on the 9th of May. About 400 people attended that meeting and we tend to do our consultations a little bit different. So we actually do pause, real-time pause with the people attending those meetings. We involve them all the way so they can come up with their proposals, they can use their mobile phones to come up with their inputs. So we try to make things as interactive as possible, listening to everyone, not giving lessons to anyone. This is absolutely necessary but really trying to find the best way for us to channel in the point of view of the citizens. And we extend this format. We also launch a new format called Speaking about Europe. It's a format that we employ in smaller communities, in villages, in smaller towns. We organize small focus groups with people from different social backgrounds, gender balance focus groups and people from different generations speaking with them about Europe. And we notice that they are really excited about this project but also want their voice to be heard better at European level. So you are to a certain extent in the north-western side of Europe. We represent the Eastern border of the European Union. And to a certain extent for us, Brussels is quite far, like it is to a certain extent for you as well here in Ireland. And it's important to make sure that our people feel involved and part of the process. This is why we have decided for our presidency to organize events around the country. So we are going to have the summit in Sebyw, the ministerial meeting in Bucharest. In every county we are going to organize at least one meeting because we want people to feel part of Europe. And that Europe can be everywhere of course, no matter where people live. In smaller or bigger communities, closer or farther away from Brussels, people should be part of the process and should feel part of the process at European level. So of course the momentum of the presidency is key for us to try to do more at European level. After Brexit our country will become the sixth biggest country in terms of ways in the decision-making process at European level. And this implies for us a bigger responsibility. And really we see it as a responsibility. A responsibility to participate more at the European decision-making process, listening more to our friends from different member states, trying to generate consensus. And I think it's been already 11 years since we integrated the European Union. Romania is not a new member state anymore. It's a long standing member state of the European Union and this implies for us taking responsibility. So we have 32 seats in the European Parliament, we are going to have 33 seats in the European Parliament. This is also important for you to know just to understand to which extent we can have a positive and active contribution to the decision-making process. Romania is lucky enough to not have any extremist left-wing or right-wing parties in the Romanian Parliament nor in the European Parliament. So this is also something that needs to be stressed out. So I said that we defined our list of priorities with citizens and stakeholders. These are our four pillars. So we are going to focus a lot on citizens and a lot of cohesion. On cohesion, I'm going to say a couple of words about that, but we have four pillars. The first pillar is economic and social pillar. We are going to speak about growth. Romania had last year a 7% economic growth. This year we expect again about 5% to 6% economic growth. So Romania and Ireland are the two fastest growing economies in Europe and maybe we can speak together about growth. So it's an invitation that I'm launching you all and about our models and what we should do more at European level, but also about development, also about convergence, cohesion, reducing the gaps, but also about the competitiveness of the European Union and our businesses in the world. We believe this is a key element, but also about connectivity between North-South, East-West, digital connectivity, but also infrastructure connectivity, getting access better from one country to another. I think this is also absolutely key. And also we are going to speak here about macro regions, reviving macro regions as a model of regional development in the European Union. Of course Romania is part of the Danube of macro region and we want to use this momentum also to speak about that strategy and also about the Black Sea. The second pillar is about a safer Europe, a Europe of safety or Europe of security. The Austrian presidency is speaking highly about that. We are going to also speak about that. Actually this came up of the consultation that we've done with citizens. We are going to speak about the reform of the Schengen area, hopefully with Romania in Schengen. We are going to speak about border management, but we are going to speak also about working more together. We notice that unfortunate member states are not exchanging enough with each other. And we have a couple of proposals regarding this fact that we want to put on the table of the European Union Council. And we are going to speak about cyber security. Romania has a lot of experts in cyber security. And we would like for us to cooperate more in this field at European level. This idea launched by the Commission to have a stronger agency in this field is also something that is quite important, but just exchanging with each other. The example that I always give is the one-a-cry attack that we had a couple of years back. Some countries had the solution, some countries didn't have the solution, but we didn't have a format of cooperation of exchanging information about how to handle that virus. And the solution came in from a young person, a young IT person of 23-year-old that just put online the solution for everyone. But we could have found the solution together. So we believe that we should find better means for us to cooperate. We are going to speak about the global action of the European Union, the defence policy. Romania is actively participating in the common security and defence policy, but also speaking about the defence fund, keeping up to our commitments and our promises, but also speaking about our neighbourhood, supporting the European past of Western Balkan countries. So probably the negotiations for the accession of North and Macedonia and Albania in the European Union will start in June next year. This is at least what has been decided in the last General Affairs Council. So this will mean during our presidency. And also we are going to speak about Eastern Partnership, Georgia, Ukraine, and especially about the Republic of Moldova and how we can be present there, how we can actually deliver our message altogether about the European Union and why they should still continue pursuing this goal of being part of the European Union in the same time applying the European model. So it's important for us to be present there and we are going to speak about, they need to do more in a certain extent. Also we are very much committed in speaking about common values, European common values. There are a lot of discussions about that, but we believe at some point we really need to discuss together about that. So we are going to discuss hopefully together about that. This doesn't imply that we will reach a compromise, but simply having a conversation, having a discussion is necessary today. And also we are going to speak about a lot of elements, fighting and hate speech, speaking about tolerance, speaking about equal opportunities, gender rights as well, but also about human dignity. We want to revive this concept. This concept is mentioned in the European treaties in the beginning. It's mentioned in the speeches of the founding fathers of the European Union, but we forgot to refer to it. So we want to speak about human dignity and what we mean by human dignity at European level and to which extent European policies deliver this element of human dignity. Of course this will imply speaking about the social pillars, speaking about the European semester. This will imply speaking about the policies that have a direct positive impact on people and also economic policies. So a lot of issues to be raised and of course if I have any questions I can give you more details on that. So on all those four pillars we have precise ideas, recommendations or suggestions. So on our priorities we have translated all our priorities in a common language. So we have translated all the legislative process in a language that is being easily understood by non-experts in European policies, because we really believe that today we need to be as clear as possible, as transparent as possible about what is being done at European level and what should be done. So I know you have a lot more experience than us in handling presidencies, but nevertheless I wanted to point out the fact that everyone is committing in preparing this presidency. And we try to be prepared actually six months in advance, because we are already acting as a shadow presidency during the Austrian presidency, even though we are not part of the same trio, remain as part of the trio with Finland and Croatia. We are the first of our trio, but already working on a lot of the files with the Austrians. We did that very well with the Estonians and the Bulgarians. We are part of the groups discussing the next mutual financial framework, already being part of the negotiation and discussions taking place on that file. So we are also actively preparing for the summit in Sibiu. Hopefully you could come and see Romania and also come for the summit. The summit probably will discuss about what could be the future of the European Union. We would love to have a declaration mentioning a common position about the future of Europe, mentioning some of the conclusions of the consultations that have been conducted and expressing the position of the different member states. It will be hopefully a successful summit. We are doing everything that is in our power to make it a success. It is going to be, of course, like you already know, it is going to take place on the 9th of May 2019. On the Europe stage, therefore, it is also a key moment. It is before the European elections and hopefully the declaration there will be useful to define in the June council, formal council that is going to take place in Brussels. We hope that the declaration will be also reflected in the agenda of the leaders that is going to be adopted in June next year. A agenda of the leaders is an important document like you already know. We hope that the next agenda of the leaders is going to take into consideration some of the elements mentioned in the declaration of the CBU summit. Like I said, we try to involve as many people as possible in our presidency and have a transparent process. The moderator spoke about our logo, which looks, let's say, like a wolf, but I think the story is important. It is the result of a competition. We had about 300 young people participating in the competition. We had a jury of experts from all political groups, all political feelings and experts in communication, but at the end we had about 10,000 people voting for the logo. So it's really a successful story because it was really a successful competition. At the end we have a 15-year-old young man that designed this logo. He's not studying arts. He simply did that all alone, just not sleeping an entire night to draft it. He has a very nice story. He's a bright scholar. He has a brother that is studying in another European university and obtained a scholarship in another European university. He was raised in a family that took good care of him, raised by a single mother that did a great job in raising him, and I think his story is the story of any young European today. I think this is a message that the voice of young people should be heard, not simply speaking about young people, but actually giving them the chance to come up with their ideas. We gave the chance to younger Romanians to come up with their idea, and they drafted this logo. I simply wanted to illustrate a strong European Union, proud of its values. The wolf is part of almost all European mythologies, but I also wanted to show that the European Union supports biodiversity and reiterate also the importance that Romania is giving to the environment as a whole. I think he illustrated that just fine, illustrating the European flag, illustrating the Romanian flag, and trying to illustrate a strong European Union. We tried to do the same also for the motto, so we involve experts from academia, from the media in defining our motto, so our motto is cohesion, a common European value, and we mean by that two things. Through cohesion we understand the unity of the European family, us working together, respecting each other, not having double standards, not having second rank citizens. It's key for us to discuss frankly about that, but also it's about social, economic and territorial convergence. This is mentioned in the European treaties for a couple of years already, and it's important to remind everyone that convergence is key and reducing gaps is also key for a strong European Union. I'm happy that I'm speaking about that here in Ireland. I don't know how you perceive what you have done, but for us in our region Ireland is a model, and it's a successful story. To a certain extent it's a story that Romania is trying to copy, while at the same time improving what can be done better. To a certain extent we believe that Ireland and Romania could find solutions to have an even better model in the future of development and growth. The way you employ European funds represents a positive example. Romania would like to do the same, and I believe the entire region would like to do the same. I think Ireland could speak more about that in our region as well. I'm glad that in the next couple of weeks and months there are different meetings that are going to take place between our two governments, and I think this can be a positive aspect of our future bilateral relations, because we look at the numbers. We notice that our trade between Ireland and Romania has doubled in the last couple of years. We see that Romanian citizens feel welcome here and they participate actively and positively to the local communities. I think all those Irish companies that are more and more present in Romania also have a positive impact on the business environment in our country. Therefore, there are signs showing that we can do more together, bilaterally but probably more together at European levels. You can count on me in supporting this, and I'm sure that the Romanian presidency could be a key moment in fostering and developing our good bilateral relations. Thank you.