ROMANIA ON BERLIN CONFERENCE IN SUPPORT OF

C O N F I D E N T I A L BUCHAREST 000475 SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/NCE AND NEA/IPA E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/12/2013 TAGS: PREL KWBG PBTS PHUM IS EUN RO SUBJECT: ROMANIA ON BERLIN CONFERENCE IN SUPPORT OF PALESTINIAN CIVIL POLICE AND THE RULE OF LAW REF: STATE 062133 Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR TED TANOUE; REASONS 1.4(b) and (d). ¶1. (C) POLOFF delivered reftel demarche on June 13 to MFA Director General for Political Affairs Stefan Tinca. Tinca reported that Foreign Minister Comanescu would be attending the Berlin Conference. However, he added that Romania would be more focused on identifying possible project areas among the 14 priorities in the follow-up discussions after Berlin. Tinca indicated that Romania was very interested in the civil police training component, especially if there was an opportunity for Romania to leverage its scarce resources with other contributors -- including bilaterally with the U.S. Tinca noted that MFA would be looking further to build support for its commitment following the Berlin Conference within the Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reform (MIRA) since it has more experience in these areas. ¶2. (C) Comment: The MFA will be challenged to convince MIRA that fielding a team of civil police trainers in the Palestinian Territories (or even conducting the training in Bucharest),is a worthy cause in the current budgetary environment. MIRA complains about scarce resources and personnel, and the per diem is just not attractive enough to draw volunteers. On the other hand, if an ally (like the U.S.) were to offer up enough resources to make a joint stability police unit training cadre, MIRA might find this burden-sharing and partnership activity more attractive. End Comment. TAPLIN