AGERPRES special correspondent Daniel Florea reports: The state is required to create opportunities so that the Romanians who left for work abroad return to the country, and the authorities should own up to their wrong approach in the past to development policies, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Monday at a meeting with representatives of the Romanian community in France, at the 'Dumitru Staniloaie' Orthodox Studies and Research Center in Paris.

The prime minister, who is paying a working visit to France, was welcomed by Iosif, Metropolitan of Western and Southern Europe, who showed him around the Orthodox center.

"It's one of those moments when you feel that you have done something accomplished. (...) Yet every time I, personally, address and stand in front of diaspora Romanians, this feeling of fulfillment is overridden by a sentiment of guilt, because, after all, I represent the Romanian state in the temporary position of prime minister. (...) I would like you to return to Romania, because, in fact, you represent Romania's added value. I am aware of the amount the entire diaspora sends in remittances to support their families at home, it stands at over 6 billion euros, but if we think of it, we realize that if you can afford to send these amounts home, the added value you create in other countries and not in Romania at this moment is tremendous and, especially since we are standing in a holy place, I experience a feeling of guilt," Ciolacu said.

According to him, the authorities in Bucharest must own up to the Romanian state's responsibility in misdesigning the country's development policies "due to a wrong approach, to the fact that we contended ourselves with letting Romania idle along. (...) We managed, however, in a period of three years, to initiate many investments, in the meantime incomes have also increased in Romania, for many jobs they are almost equivalent to the pay in France, in Great Britain, in Italy. We are still lagging behind on health infrastructure, on education, on the infrastructure you got used to in France or Great Britain, Italy or Germany. It's normal for you to want more for your children and for your families. The Romanian state must create opportunities. Since we live in a united Europe, now also tested by a war, the Romanian state is required to create opportunities and the decisions are for each of us to take. Somehow, we lacked coherence, we lacked a country plan and we lacked priorities," the prime minister said, adding that he cannot find all by himself the solutions to determine the Romanians to return home.

"I didn't come here on an election campaign and, believe me, I really feel guilty every time I meet the diaspora. I think that only by working together and building together will we all be able to overcome this delicate moment, it's hard to accept that almost 6 million Romanians have left their homeland. (...) A party or a government cannot find all these solutions alone, they can only be identified by communicating. And I understand that the Romanian Orthodox Church has taken on this role of binding force, which is the most important thing now," Ciolacu said.

His Eminence Metropolitan Iosif presented the head of the Executive with the Cross of the Metropolitanate of Western and Southern Europe, and thanked him for the governmental support provided with certain social and educational projects for the benefit of the Romanian community in France.

He mentioned the progressive development, over 15 years, of the 'Dumitru Staniloaie' Orthodox Study and Research Center, thanks to the government's support through the Department for Romanians Everywhere.

"The second, very important project that we now get going is a school for children and youth in Paris, also initiated with the support of the Romanian government. Thank you for all you do," said Metropolitan Iosif.

Attending the event alongside the prime minister were the Deputy Prime Minister Marian Neacsu, Foreign Affairs Minister Luminita Odobescu, and Labor Minister Simona Bucura-Oprescu. AGERPRES (RO - editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - editor: Simona Klodnischi)