H.E. Dr. Laureniu-Mihai tefan:

I was touched by Deputy Brady's stories of his trip to Romania and the Republic of Moldova, and how it affected his view of the region. I hope we can work together in future and he will travel there in more normal and peaceful times to see what else we can do for our countries and the region.

I will be brief and try to address the two questions.

The Romanian Government is keeping track of the expenses, so I have the figures. A sum of €70 million has been spent on refugees. Romania has provided €100 million to the Republic of Moldova to assist our neighbours in handling this humanitarian crisis. We know that the European Union is doing its best. It may do more, of course. There are all these pressures - the members know that better than I do - on spending, military support and refugees in Poland and other countries, so there are huge challenges. I tend to see the positive side of the story in that the European Union acted in a united way. Of course, it may not have taken some decisions with the speed needed, but it is on the right track. With everybody here, and with our leaders pushing and co-ordinating at the European level, we can do more - that is for sure. The fact that we are interacting here today is a clear sign of unity and of our joint concern for countries such as Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova and Georgia. There is a lot of work ahead, but I think we are ready.

As for energy security, Romania has been a strong voice in the European Union in looking at this issue for at least ten years. Nobody paid attention. We know from some facts that Germany, which is a very important country, did not pay too much attention to those concerns and now Europe is paying the cost because a number of European leaders admit they cannot simply cut commercial ties with Russia. That is highly problematic. I will not get into that discussion, but we are reaching that red line now with Poland and Bulgaria being cut off from Russian gas. We have been concerned about the issue for some time and looked into it years ago, not necessarily on the brink of the war, with the Republic of Moldova. As H.E. Mrs. Miculet said, we now have the gas connection and there is a gas pipeline, so we will be able to help the Republic of Moldova as much as we can. The good thing is that we are not as reliant on Russian gas as other European countries are. Romania has natural resources, so we are looking at other alternative resources. That has been a major policy concern for Romania. I am not saying we have addressed it properly, but the attention was there and we moved closely to reduce the dependency as much as we could. Of course, there is debate in Romania as to "What will happen if?". I think Romania is better prepared than other countries and we can help our neighbours if necessary. It is to be hoped, however, that the committee and the leaders of this country will push that onto the European agenda to warn other countries, or the big countries, that we should move ahead from oil and gas from Russia and look elsewhere. I know the United States is providing assistance and gas. Let us see how we can handle this critical issue together.