BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The European Commission's president says that Romania's membership in the European Union has brought "peace and stability to our continent."

Jean-Claude Juncker has told the country's Parliament on Thursday that Romanians are "a courageous and committed people."

Juncker said that Romania's EU membership in 2007 had extended the bloc's reach to the Black Sea that forms Romania's eastern border.

Romanian President Klaus Iohannis told lawmakers this week that the country is "not a second-rate state in the EU," and urged citizens to "overcome an internal barrier that prevents us from manifesting our national capacity and limits us to unjustly considering ourselves a second-level state."

Juncker will meet Iohannis and Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu during his one-day visit.