Prime Minister Dacian Ciolos on Thursday said that no politician in the Netherlands has ever conditioned Romania’s accession to Schengen on a possible relation between the Port of Constanta and Rotterdam.
“No one has asked me for the Port of Constanta when I went to the Netherlands in order for us to join Schengen. (…) No politician in the Netherlands whom I talked to has ever conditioned the relation between the Port of Constanta and Rotterdam in respect to Romania’s accession to Schengen. (…) I can assure you that at least at my level this was out of the question,” Ciolos said, in reply to a question during the Dialogue with the Citizens organised by the European Commission, also attended by EC Vice President Jyrki Katainen.
At the same time, PM Ciolos pointed out that the performance of the Port of Constanta must be increased, before talking about privatisations at the Port of Constanta, there are some things we must do in Romania in order to increase the performance of the port, to put an end there to some things that have not been working well for several years. (…) If we are only satisfied with the fact that nature has placed us well there, it is not enough to do performing business. Therefore we must use what nature has given us and also use the intelligence, honesty and efficiency to make that port gradually running again and for that we need a few years, and only then we shall see who will become its partner,” Ciolos said.