Summary of Jean Monnet Lecture with Brandusa Predescu
− 1 min readOn Thursday, April 19, CERiM was honored to welcome Ambassador Brândușa Predescu, Minister Plenipotentiary of Romania to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, to Maastricht, for our fourth and final Jean Monnet Lecture of the academic year. With the Romanian presidency for the Council of Europe taking place in 2019, Ambassador Predescu gave a lecture to reflect on how far Romania has come and how it sees itself in the broader visions for the future of Europe.
In her lecture, titled "From Rome to Romania: Taking over the Presidency at a defining moment for the EU (January - June 2019)", Predescu gives a history of Romania and its relation with the EU. Starting in 1990, Romania established diplomatic ties with the European Community. Five years later, applied for EU membership and officially joined as a member in 2007.
It has been a little a decade since Romania's accession to the Union and Predescu points out Romania has contributed to economic growth of the Union, is one of the most pro-European member states compared to the EU average, and remains a "regional stability pillar in a complicated region".
Specifically on the Romania's presidency of the Council of Europe, Predescu discusses the number of issues on their agenda, from monitoring the developments of Brexit to the institutional changes of the Commission and Parliament. She outlined two key priorities of the Romanian mandate: ensuring the continuity of the EU agenda and fostering cooperation between the member states and the EU institutions.
The lecture ended with a lively discussion between the Ambassador and the students, whom raised critical questions about the future of Europe and Romania's goals and visions for the presidency.
