George Cristian Maior, State Secretary and chief of Department for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Defense Policy participated Monday, May 19, 03 to the reunion of Defense ministers of UE members and partner states organized at UE Council in Brussels.

The Greek presidency of the European Union presented the new elements in improving the defense capabilities since the last conference on this issue (November 2001) till now.

Mr. Maior reaffirmed Romania's interest in a substantial participation to PESA development and implementation. He stated: ''Romania as a future NATO and UE member will continue to contribute with important capacities within the two organizations according to the principles of mutual support and non-duplication of the institutional efforts". Thus, the State Secretary insisted on the fundamental importance of the transatlantic relation and complementarily of NATO-UE relation in missions and capacity.

In the same time he also mentioned: "for 2003 Romania will maintain the same offer of forces set at UE disposal at the level for 2001. For the future time we intend to harmonize our engagement for UE according to the capacity we will contribute to the entire set of NATO missions. This will be fulfilled at the end of the present cycle of the Annual National Plan implementation for 2003".

At the end, George Cristian Maior underlined "Romania will be continuously engaged in operations led by UE in the Balkans ( civilian police mission -EUPM in Bosnia Herzegovina and Concordia mission in FYROM) and in other missions such as KFOR, SFOR, in Afghanistan and recently in Iraq".

Dep. for Euro-Atlantic Integration
and Defense Policy