A bungling Romanian government staffer has been sacked after a minister mistakenly handed a gift to his German counterpart with a map of France , not Germany , inscribed on it . Officials were left red-faced after Germany 's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier received the gift from Romania 's Bogdan Aurescu at the end of a news conference marking 135 years of diplomatic relations . But what was immediately apparent was that the map on the brochure , filled with the colors of the German flag , was that of France , not Germany . German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and his Romanian counterpart Bogdan Aurescu exchange the gift unaware it shows a map of France filled with the colors of the German flag . Mr Steinmeier unwittingly holds the brochure aloft after it was given to him by the Romanian government . Pictures show the two ministers grinning and posing for photos as Mr Steinmeier receives the gift unaware the obvious error is being displayed to the world . Today the foreign ministry said it had fired spokeswoman Brandusa Predescu , saying the incident 'projected a totally unfavorable image . ' Romania also said Mr Steinmeier had responded diplomatically , claiming he had n't noticed the mistake . Immediately following the mix-up , Romania 's Foreign Ministry apologized , saying it had received the brochure in the morning containing the error from national news agency Agerpres . Its statement read : 'Due to a regrettable technical error , exclusively on the cover of the booklet , the border of the maps of Romania and France - with the latter being covered by the German flag - was printed . 'The Romanian foreign minister has directly conveyed profound regret for this situation to his German counterpart . ' New agency Agerpres later apologized to both the German and Romanian foreign ministries for the mix-up , as did the printing company . It is the second time in just over a month that Romania 's foreign ministry has had to apologise for a mistake . In February the Romanian embassy in Paris sent out invitations for a reception and accidentally attached a spreadsheet with unflattering descriptions of guests such as 'undesirable ' or 'ghastly ' .
Bungling Romanian government staffer fired for Germany map mix up . Germany 's foreign minister was given gift from the Romanian government . It mistakenly featured a map of France filled with colors of German flag . Images show the minister displaying the brochure to press photographers . The Romanian government said it had fired a spokeswoman for the error .