Turkey's EU minister, Egemen Bagis said the agreement signed yesterday between Romania and Turkey was “Like Hagi scoring against opponents of Turkish EU membership.” The Turkish minister referred to the famous Romanian football player and coach Gheorghe (Gica) Hagi, who used to coach the Turkish team Galatasaray. (Read more about Hagi in our Famous Romanians section here)

The memorandum, co-signed by Romania's EU Affairs minister, Leonard Orban, is being hailed by the Turkish government and media as another step towards EU membership for Turkey.

Bagis highlighted Romania's solid support for Turkish accession at a joint press conference in Bucharest yesterday ( April 4 ). The memorandum of understanding provides a vehicle for the two countries to work together on EU matters and Orban suggested that visa requirements for Turks coming to Romania would be eased.

Bagis also described Turkish EU membership of the EU was a win-win situation and hinted at current economic problems in the EU by saying that Turkey's need for the EU was decreasing, while the EU's need for Turkey was on the up.

Romania created the EU funding Ministry in late 2011, hoping to improve the absorption of EU funds. The country has to increase the rate of absorption, from the current 6.3 percent, as a prerequisite to getting more money from the EU budget.

Liam Lever, liam@romania-insider.com