Romania is determined to meet its commitments to narrow its government deficit and continue the process of fiscal consolidation, Romania's Finance Minister Alexandru Nazare told the European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity, Valdis Dombrovskis, during an informal discussion on Friday in Luxembourg.

'This morning I participated in the working breakfast of EPP ministers, organised on the sidelines of the ECOFIN meeting, where I delivered a speech on the main economic issues on the European agenda today: competitiveness, investments and strengthening Europe's capacity to grow in a difficult economic context. On the sidelines of the meeting, I also had an informal conversation with European Commissioner for Economy and Productivity Valdis Dombrovskis, to whom I conveyed that Romania is determined to remain serious and consistent on the deficit reduction trajectory. It is essential to maintain our credibility before European partners and markets, and that means meeting our commitments and continuing, with the same discipline, on a path to fiscal consolidation,' Nazare wrote in a social media post.

He mentioned that he also discussed with Vice-President of the European Investment Bank Ioannis Tsakiris Romania's projects developed in partnership with the EIB and the continuation of collaboration for investments in infrastructure, energy and competitiveness.

'The official ECOFIN sessions are coming, with important topics to Romania: the competitiveness of the banking sector, the integration of financial markets, the implementation of the RRF, the European Semester, the economic impact of the war in Ukraine and the coordination of fiscal policies at European level. Romania is active in these discussions and supports its positions where European decisions can directly influence access to finance, financial stability, energy competitiveness, investments and the way we build our economic growth in the coming years. The objective is for the European opportunities and instruments now under negotiation to be transformed as much as possible into projects, capital and development for Romania,' Nazare said.

Nazare participated on Thursday and Friday in a meeting of the Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in Luxembourg, where the current economic and financial challenges, the impact of developments on the energy markets and the coordination of fiscal policies at European level were discussed. AGERPRES (RO - editing by: George Banciulea; EN - writing by: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu)