site.btaNicolae Ciuca: EPP Congress Manifesto Is Victory for Romania

Nicolae Ciuca, President of Romania's National Liberal Party (PNL) and President of the Senate of Romania, described the election manifesto adopted by the European People's Party congress in Bucharest on Wednesday evening as "a victory for Romania".

Ciuca said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that the unanimously adopted manifesto called for Romania's accession to the Schengen Area as soon as possible and that Austria did not vote against.

"From Bucharest, today, it has been heard loud and clear across Europe: Romania must join the Schengen Area in its own right," the post reads further.

Listing the key points of the EPP manifesto, Ciuca noted that the EPP "supports full Schengen membership for Romania and Bulgaria, lifting not only air and sea controls but also land border controls as soon as possible".

"We want a secure and tax-friendly Europe that supports business," the PNL leader wrote. "A competitive Union that supports entrepreneurs, young people and farmers. We want environmental policies to go hand in hand with economic and social policies. The target of a 55% reduction in carbon emissions still stands, but we need the experts and the market to decide what the best technologies are to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050," Ciuca explained.

"The EPP's strategy for EU enlargement covers not only Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia, but also the Western Balkans. This plan is a firm commitment to strengthening and expanding European values in our region," the post concluded.