Romania declares State of European Union victory

Sibiu likely to host EU’s first post-Brexit summit 2019

The dust has barely settled on Jean-Claude Juncker’s State of the European Union speech and already national governments are dividing up the potential spoils and trying to kill off threats to their power.

The Dutch and Danish Prime Ministers may have poured cold water on Juncker’s ideas for increased EU presidency powers and an EU finance ministry, but Romania’s EU Affairs Minister Victor Negrescu took an opposite approach: declaring Romania the winner of the speech.

“Romania was the most mentioned country in President Juncker’s speech this year,” Negrescu, 32, told reporters Thursday.

Negrescu, who is charged with organizing Romania’s EU presidency in the first half of 2019, hinted that the post-Brexit EU27 leaders’ summit Juncker requested in his speech would be held in Sibiu, a small city in Transylvania.

Negrescu said he had scheduled planning meeting with local authorities.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis was a mayor of Sibiu — a former European Capital for Culture — for 14 years before becoming president.

Bid for EU agency on the way

Negrescu said that if new EU agencies for labor and cybersecurity end up being created as a result of Juncker’s plan laid out on Wednesday, they would have to be located in a country that doesn’t yet host an agency.

Romania is one of six EU countries not home to an EU agency. The others are Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Romania to campaign for Schengen approval

Juncker’s call to include Romania and Bulgaria into the passport-free Schengen travel area prompted the Romanian governemnt to arrange new meeting with German, French and Dutch officials, in an attempt to overcome their objections to Schengen expansion.

While Negrescu refused to announce a date by which Romania wants to be in the Schengen Zone, the country’s 2019 presidency of the EU is a potential neat solution.

A former Member of the European Parliament, Negrescu joined the Romanian government in June 2017.