Romanian ForMin: Romanian thesaurus issue will not affect EU accession

Romania has started re-negotiating its economic and trade treaties with Russia in the light of its planned EU accession. The Foreign Ministry in Bucharest says the country’s European efforts will not affect its economic relations with Moscow and that the issue of the Romanian thesaurus in Moscow will not be discussed.

Russia, meanwhile, has announced it planned a series of measures to reduce the “negative consequences” of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU, planned for next year.

Russia’s Ambassador to the EU Vladimir Cizhov said last week his country was considering a series of moves in this regard as it would like to avoid “synchronization problems” as it happened two years ago, when ten new countries joined the Union.

Authorities in Bucharest say, however, that the re-negotiation of Romania-Russia accord has already started and focuses on bringing the trade and economic relations with EU criteria.

According to the Romanian Foreign Ministry, some of the existing accords must be annulled, renewed or fully changed and both parties proved a positive and flexible attitude towards the talks.

They underlined that the framework political treaty between Bucharest and Moscow would not be subject of re-negotiation. And the issue of Romania’s WWI-old thesaurus, which remains in Russia and is a subject of decades-old disputes, will be treated as part of the framework talks established by the Foreign Ministers of the two countries in 2003 and not as part of a EU-oriented debate.