Geoana: I have noticed frustration of EU ambassador over F16 fighter acquisition

Senate Chairman Mircea Geoana on Thursday said he noticed 'a special interest and some frustration' on the part of the ambassadors of the European Union member states he met, concerning the decision of Romania's Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT) to purchase decommissioned F16 fighters.

Geoana said that when an official notification is sent to him, he will require all the US and European companies involved to present their offerings at a debate in Parliament, so that the Romanian MPs may knowingly decide.

' I am convinced that, when called upon to vote on this decision, the Romanian Parliament will know how to listen to the arguments of all the US and European companies that made offerings of multi-role fighting aircraft for the Romanian Armed Forces,' Geoana said.

He pointed out that Romania is the only European country that has not adhered to the Code of Conduct on Offsets and the Code of Conduct on Defence Acquisitions.'If the Government fails to react, it will be our intention to initiate a legislative proposal that will allow Romania to be normal in terms of transparency and predictability of Government procurement,' Geoana concluded.

Senate President Mircea Geoana met the ambassadors of the EU member states on Thursday.A large number of the ambassadors of the European states accredited to Bucharest took the invitation of the Senate President.

Summing up the talks held with the 16 ambassadors of the EU member states who took his invitation, Geoana said that he had offered Bucharest as a venue of the international meeting for debating the strategy for the struggle against poverty and social exclusion. He also said that, at the suggestion of Sweden's Ambassador, he considered organizing, in the second part of the year, a meeting of the parliaments in the Eastern Partnership, to which the parliaments of the neighbouring countries should also be invited by the side of the parliaments of the member states.

According to the President of the Senate, other subjects dealt with were the stage of adopting the codes of civil and penal procedure, the decision made two days ago by the Supreme Council for the Country's Defence on buying F16 American aircraft second hand, but also the themes of the European Council, especially the answer given by the EU to the problems of Greece.Mircea Geoana informed that he intended to make these meetings permanent, at least one during every presidency of the Union.