ARC camps are a means of connecting children and young people from Romanian communities everywhere to what Romania means, Prime Minister Viorica Dancila told the launch on Tuesday of a new edition of this programme.

"It is a generous initiative that has developed and expanded in recent years, both by increasing the number of participants and by diversifying the educational and cultural programmes and the areas where it is taking place. This summer, we expect about 3,000 children at ARC camps in Romania, young people and teachers, ethnic Romanians from countries located around the borders - the Balkans, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, including Transnistria, Albania, North Macedonia, Croatia, Hungary, and Italy, Greece, Canada, Portugal, the UK, France and Germany," Dancila said at the Government House.

She added that this programme has a soulful significance to the Romanian Government.

"ARC camps means education through Romanian language, Romanian civilisation classes; they mean culture through creative workshops benefitting children and young people. At the same time, these camps promote a healthy lifestyle through sports programmes and competitions, but first of all these camps are a means of connecting the children and young people from the Romanian communities to what Romania means, a country that some of them know only from the stories of their parents or grandparents."

Dancila said she is preoccupied, as the prime minister, with defending and promoting the "Romanians' right to ethnic, linguistic and religious identity," be them the historical communities around Romania's borders or emerging ones.

"I am proud to be able to bring Romania closer to us and to unite our fellow compatriots or ethnic Romanians from all over the world where their destiny lead them." The ARC camp programme supports the volunteering of Romanians outside the national borders to feel, think and live Romanian, no matter where they live, work and study," added Dancila.

She congratulated Minister for Romanians Abraod Natalia Intotero, and Youth and Sports Minister Bogdan Matei on the continuation of the programme.

The two signed a co-operation protocol between the two ministries on Tuesday for the launch of the 2019 edition of the ARC programme. AGERPRES (RO - author: Daniel Florea, editor: Claudia Stanescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Adina Panaitescu)