Klaus Iohannis, Romania's new President, visits the Commission for the first time - Main contents

On 15 January Klaus Iohannis paid his first visit to the Commission and to President Jean-Claude Juncker. I am very happy I had the chance to sit down and talk with him.

As the Romanian Commissioner I was glad to welcome Klaus Iohannis to the European Commission for his first visit as Romania's newly elected President. Together we discussed how Regional policy is vital to Romania, as it is the first financial source for public investment in the country; in 2013, the European Structural Funds and national co-financing accounted for 41.4% of total public investment there.

Through the task force on implementation which I created in the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, we are offering Romania all the necessary technical assistance to ensure an efficient and fast absorption of EU funds.

We are in constant dialogue with the Romanian authorities to come up with proposals to use the remaining EU funds from the 2007-2013 budgetary period in the eleven months we have left. We would like to have a good start for the 2014-2020 programming period, with sound and viable projects that are going to create jobs in Romania.