The President of Romania Trayan Bassescu is paying an official visit to Bulgaria at the invitation of his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov.

The two discussed bilateral relations in all spheres as well as their countries’ partnership within the framework of the EU and NATO.

They considered the possibilities for enhancing trade, economic and investment cooperation and cooperation in the energy sector. At a joint press conference President Parvanov said that Bulgaria and Romania are working very actively for meeting the criteria of the Schengen space.

He marked the good perspectives for cooperation in the energy sector and the common will for building links between the natural gas grids of the two countries.

Bulgaria’s and Romania’s word should be heard on more issues in view of Black Sea cooperation and issues concerning the Western Balkans, Parvanov added.

On his part Trayan Bassescu pointed out that Romania supports the establishing of a joint European strategy on the Roma population.

In his words, keeping in mind the right of each European citizen to free movement, the problem with the Roma is not just a problem for the country of origin. “Meanwhile we call for stepping out of hypocrisy”, Bassescu further pointed out.