Miletic Mihajlovic, Head of the PFG with Romania, welcomed Romanian Ambassador Oana-Cristina Popa on the behalf of the PFG members and himself, informing her that the Parliamentary Friendship Group boasts 21 members at present. Mihajlovic also thanked the Ambassador for the support of Serbia’s territorial integrity and sovereignty. “The annual economic cooperation between Serbia and Romania of one billion three hundred EUR is an excellent number, but I am sure we can make our economic relations even better”, said Mihajlovic. He stressed that the Serbia-Romania mixed commission on Djerdap must come up with sustainable solutions so that the project and construction of the new power plant does not stagnate, and that the Serbia-Romania mixed commission for national minorities has to find common solutions acceptable for both nations, with no pressure to declare ethnicity, including the Vlach national minority, the right to education in one’s native language, as well as the position of the Romanian church. “It takes a lot of patience, but we must build friendship and cooperation to both sides’ benefit”, stressed Mihajlovic, adding that he hopes any cooperation between the two countries would reach the levels and quality of the parliamentary cooperation between Serbia and Romania.

H.E. Oana-Cristina Popa, Romanian Ambassador to Serbia, hopes that cooperation would continue in all these spheres and wishes to meet all the members of the PFG with Romania at the celebration of Romania’s National Day on 30 November to which she invited them all. The Ambassador said she was sure the cooperation would be shored up by the signing of a series of agreements planned for the coming visit of Serbian high dignitaries to Romania, such as cooperation in internal affairs, Serbia’s European integration, education, etc. She reminded the PFG members that Novi Sad and Bucharest are to be European capitals of culture for 2020-2021 which is to include a series of projects in the spheres of culture, education and economy to stimulate cooperation at the regional level, and at the same time contribute to the visibility of national minorities in both countries. Oana-Cristina Popa said that Romania’s stance on Kosovo-Metohija remains unchanged and Romania will continue to support Serbia on its path to EU membership.

MA Ivan Kostic added that besides being a member of the PFG with Romania he is also the Chairman of the Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region and thanked Romania for respecting the Serb national minority. The Ambassador said that the Romanian Parliament has a representative of every recognised national minority, which is a system that took a lot of work but gave excellent results the Republic of Romania is proud of.

The Head of the PFG with Romania ended the meeting saying that the relations between the two countries’ need to be good at all levels because the two neighbouring people depend on one another.
The meeting was also attended by MP Ognjen Pantovic.