Romanian President Klaus Iohannis shakes hands with visiting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz (L) at the Cotroceni Presidential Palace in Bucharest, capital of Romania, Dec. 21, 2018. Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Friday reiterated the desire to conclude the Brexit process in an orderly manner during his country's presidency. Romania is taking over the Presidency of the EU Council from Austria from Jan. 1, 2019. (Xinhua/Cristian Cristel)
BUCHAREST, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Romanian President Klaus Iohannis on Friday reiterated the desire to conclude the Brexit process in an orderly manner during his country's presidency.
"The withdrawal agreement agreed on a political level by the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) remains the most efficient instrument for limiting the negative consequences of Brexit and for ensuring the legal certainty for the citizens and the business environment, and the conclusion will allow building a future ambitious partnership between the UK and EU," Iohannis told a joint press conference with visiting Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Romania is taking over the Presidency of the EU Council from Austria from Jan. 1, 2019.
Iohannis underscored the very good institutional coordination and the support offered by Austria for achieving an efficient transition to the EU Council Presidency.
"I hailed the results the Austrian colleagues have managed to obtain in a series of important files for the entire Union," said the Romanian head of state, assuring of Romania's entire openness and commitment to continue these efforts at European level.
The talks between Iohannis and Kurz also focused on other priority topics on the European agenda, such as the post-2020 future EU budget.
"Looking towards the future, we agreed that the new 2021-2027 multiannual financial framework represents an opportunity to support the advancement of European policies by setting a balanced and fair EU budget after 2020...We have discussed the need for security of the European citizens and for a proper response to the migration crisis," he added.?
