Ulaanbaatar/MONTSAME/.  On the occasion of Europe Day, May 9, EU Ambassador Mr. Traian Laurentiu Hristea has been interviewed.

Happy to have you interviewing on the Europe Day, please give us a brief introduction about this day?

On May 9, we celebrate Europe Day, the founding moment of today's European Union. On 9 May 1950 in the aftermath of the devastating Second World War, Robert Schuman, the Luxembourg-born foreign minister of France, laid the foundations of our collective endeavour. He said: “Europe will not be made all at once, or according to a single plan. It will be built through concrete achievements which first create a de facto solidarity.”

Since then, Schuman’s dream has come gradually to fulfilment, enabling many countries and millions of Europeans to enjoy freedom, democracy, fundamental rights and high living standards. After progressively enlarging its scope, both politically and geographically, the EU became the biggest single market and the most important provider of development and humanitarian aid in the world, a true global actor committed to effective multilateralism. With almost half a billion citizens, it brings together peoples and nations from all over Europe who are proud of their history and culture but know they will be stronger together.

Our founding fathers and mothers imagined a renewed European continent – a continent that instead of exporting war would promote peace, democracy and human development within its borders and in the world. Choosing cooperation over confrontation, Europeans built the most successful peace project in history.

How do you celebrate the Europe day? What kinds of activities have you planned?

On Europe Day, the European Union Institutions and their Delegations all around the world traditionally organize a variety of events and activities to mark this important occasion, to celebrate the European values of unity and solidarity and to reaffirm our ties with our partner countries.

This is the second year that we celebrate Europe Day in the times of coronavirus. Because of the ongoing restrictions, there will unfortunately be no open doors events to celebrate Europe Day. The situation also remains precarious in many regions of the world, but this has not stopped our Delegations to come up with a range of innovative online events!

The Delegation of the EU in cooperation with its Members states will organize an online European classical music concert on Friday 28 May at 19.00 via social media channels of the Delegation YouTube EUinMongolia and Facebook EUinMongolia and local TV station, simultaneously.

We would highly appreciate your cooperation in cross posting the concert information on your media channels using Hashtag #EuropeDay2021

During a 40 minutes stream the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Mongolia will play nine different EU Member States’ musical performances. We welcome everybody to attend this event.

We take this opportunity to look at the EU in the world – and you are invited to join in: participate, for instance, in our quiz “Together we are Europe”, check out our photo exhibition “EU Foreign Policy in Action” or follow our live events with EU Ambassadors around the world.

The Delegation of the European Union to Mongolia is organizing for the second time an online Film Festival for a period of one month starting from October. The online European Film Festival is a unique way to share with you our common values such as respect for human dignity and human rights, freedom, democracy, equality and the rule of law. We hope these events will bring closer European and Mongolian peoples and cultures.

The ongoing crisis leaves no room for social gatherings, and our thoughts go out to all those who are fighting against the virus or suffering because of it. COVID-19 is changing our world, but we cannot let it drift us apart. Rather, this global challenge is bringing us together as a world community as has never happened before.

We are supporting the Government, the people and communities of Mongolia to eradicate the COVID-19 virus and to make the country safe for all. This is not just a commitment: we are doing it. We all know that only together will we be able to overcome it.

On Europe Day, as EU we would also like to express our sincere thanks and appreciation for all those who are on the frontline to combat the COVID-19 disease in Mongolia. We take hope from all the frontline health workers and first responders’ organizations workers who bravely and tirelessly provide vital care and support during this crisis.

What kind of projects and programmes are you implementing in Mongolia?

To help Mongolia in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, we have refocused our priorities and have mobilized EUR 37.65 million in the form of grants for Mongolia working on 3 main lines of response:

1)         Tackling immediate needs for prevention, protection, medical care and crisis response, and strengthening the health system;

2)         Address public finance management, employment, and SMEs challenges.

3)         Addressing the needs of the most vulnerable population and mitigating the socio economic impact of COVID-19;

In addition, Team Europe, which brings together the European Union, its Member States and the European Investment Bank, is one of the lead contributors to COVAX, with over €3.2 billion pledged to help secure 1.3 billion doses of vaccines for 92 low- and middle-income countries by the end of 2021. Mongolia has received these vaccines through COVAX and the Mongolian people are being vaccinated.

The rest of our portfolio covers four main priorities:

·         Strengthening Governance for Inclusive and Sustainable Development in Mongolia: we support the implementation of an ambitious public finance management reform agenda through Budget support and technical assistance to enhance the quality of spending.

·         Support for better employment opportunities, focusing on diversifying Mongolia's economy and trade patterns by helping small and medium size enterprises. Our projects range from the vocational training to improve value chains, provide better access international markets and providing access to finance to SMEs.

·         Human rights: we are supporting the effective implementation of human and labour rights in Mongolia, including violence against children and gender based violence. We are also supporting the development of civil society organisations in various fields (agriculture, environment, corruption and press freedom).

·         Climate change and environment: the EU is supporting Mongolia in building climate resilience, reducing pollution and switching to more sustainable consumption and production.

What is the further plan to develop this fruitful cooperation?

For the future cooperation in Mongolia we aim to focus mainly on three priority areas: namely:

1. Green Sustainable Development where we aim to support Mongolia in: i) transitioning to a greener, more digital and diversified economy, based on sustainable resilient eco-system and agriculture management, production and value chains; ii) strengthening its regulatory and policy framework towards climate change mitigation and adaptation; and iii) enhancing human development in agriculture and forestry sectors.

2.  Democratic and Economic Development where our focus will be on: i) the effective implementation of justice reform through the strengthened justice system capacities, enhanced fight against corruption and promotion of civic education; ii) the continuation of the work on trade policy and facilitation, export readiness and implementation of the 27 GSP+ conventions on human and labour rights, environment, and good governance; and iii) strengthening public finance management and improving domestic revenue mobilization.

3.  Green Energy Transition where the aim would be to: i) strengthen the regulatory and institutional framework for the energy transition; ii) increase private and public investments in sustainable energy projects.