Bucharest, Tuesday, 28 June 2011 Excellencies, Distinguished Invitees, Ladies and Gentlemen, It gives me great pleasure to welcome you on this seminar on "Conflict Prevention and Peacebuilding". We all gathered in Bucharest for these discussions in an attempt to add fresh, new approaches to our collective commitment to promote and support the stabilisation and reconstruction in countries and societies in need. It has become a common practice for the MFA to meet the representatives of Romanian academics and think-tanks specialized on foreign and European affairs and the presence here, among our distinguished guests, of so many important senior policy experts and planners marks this event as a truly impressive one. But, first of all, let me express my personal gratitude to our friends at the European Commission, the European Peacekeeping Liaison Office and the European External Action Service for believing in this project and for all the help they so kindly provided. Distinguished Guests, Dear Friends, Just a week ago, in the latest Foreign Affairs Council Conclusions of 20 June, we have seen a new acknowledgement of the importance of our field of action as the representatives of the 27 member states declared that "preventing conflicts and relapses into conflict, in accordance with international law, is a primary objective of the EU's external action, in which it could take a leading role". Romania is a strong supporter of an increased role for the EU on the international scene, as well as for a more effective external action of the Union. With Lisbon now into force for more than a year and a half, it is time to move on from the EU's introverted decade of institutional introspection and turn to implementing the pressing task of making the EU a relevant global player. It is our view that the impact of the Lisbon Treaty on the institutional architecture of the Common For