On 10 September 2018, Federal Councillor Ignazio Cassis will meet Foreign Minister Teodor Meleșcanu for a bilateral meeting in the Romanian capital Bucharest and pay Prime Minister Vasilica Viorica Dăncilă a courtesy visit. Romania will take over the presidency of the Council of the European Union in January 2019. The talks will focus on this and on a number of other topics, including the status of Switzerland's negotiations with the EU on institutional matters and bilateral aspects such as economic cooperation between the two countries.
Mr Cassis will also discuss the presidency of the Council of the EU in Sofia, where he will meet Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva on 11 September 2018. Bulgaria held the Council presidency in the first half of 2018, and its experiences will be a topic of discussion.
Switzerland's bilateral relations with both Romania and Bulgaria are close and continue to deepen. For example, the volume of trade between Switzerland and Romania has increased in the last ten years from CHF 982 million to over CHF 1.4 billion, while the volume of trade between Switzerland and Bulgaria has grown from CHF 409 million to around CHF 700 million over the same period. Since 2009, Switzerland has been supporting 74 projects in Romania and Bulgaria as part of Switzerland's contribution to the enlarged EU, the goals of which include promoting economic growth in both countries, improving working conditions, public safety and environmental protection, and strengthening civil society. The projects will reach completion in 2019. This cooperation also contributes to the further deepening of Switzerland's bilateral relations with both Romania and Bulgaria.
Mr Cassis will also use his stay in Romania to meet representatives of the German minority in Romania in Sibiu/Hermannstadt. Meeting representatives of linguistic minorities in other countries is a personal concern of Mr Cassis when travelling abroad.
Further information:
Bilateral relations Switzerland–Romania
Enlargement contribution Switzerland–Romania
FDFA blog: JOBS: a new subject in Romanian schools (in German)
Bilateral relations Switzerland–Bulgaria
Enlargement contribution Switzerland–Bulgaria
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