Maria João Rodrigues (S&D). – Mr President, I would like to welcome Prime Minister Dăncilă.

The Romanian Presidency will be that country’s first presidency and the last presidency before the European elections. So this will be a very important presidency, and let me focus particularly on the Sibiu summit, because the Sibiu summit is our last opportunity to project another kind of Europe for all citizens across Europe before the European elections. So let me tell you what our expectations are, our wishes for the kind of Europe we’d like to project using the Sibiu summit.

We think that you are coming up with the right priorities. In order to have strong unity among Europeans cohesion is certainly the key word – as you said: economic, social, political cohesion. We are with you in this central priority and you can turn this into something very concrete.

The first thing is a social pillar translated into European law and powerful European financial instruments. The second thing is a pre-agreement on the multiannual budget, on which cohesion is a central concern, both for all EU Member States and the eurozone. Then there is a third very important issue: yes Europe is counting on the European border, hopefully with Romania already included in the Schengen area. The fourth one is better partnerships with all our neighbouring regions, including our course Eastern partners, which are very dear to us.

And then if we manage all these issues it will be easier to manage migration properly. Finally, if we have this kind of Europe we will have unity whatever happens with Brexit. So this is a very important historical task, but also an opportunity.