Austria is one of the top investors in Romania, with
\ntotal investments put at over EUR 12 billion in 2021. But it is also the only
\nEU member state openly opposing Romania’s Schengen accession, which is puzzling
\nfor both Bucharest, and Brussels. At the latest meeting of the Justice and Home
\nAffairs Council last December, Vienna vetoed Romania’s accession to the
\nborder-free area, disregarding all the reports dating as far back as 2011 that
\nsaid the country met all technical criteria to be a Schengen member.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
A regrettable and unjustified attitude, president Klaus
\nIohannis said at the time. The EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Ylva Johansson,
\npointed out that she would make it a priority to secure Romania’s and Bulgaria’s
\nSchengen accession this year, while the European Commission chief, Ursula von
\nder Leyen, and the Council president, Charles Michel, said they were expecting
\nprogress to be made. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
But while on a visit to Bucharest on Wednesday,
\nAustria’s minister of the interior Gerhard Karner shattered all hopes in this
\nrespect: Romania made important headway in fighting illegal migration, but
\nthere is still a lot to be done to ensure efficient protection of the Union’s
\nborders, he said. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Romania’s Schengen accession is not only a goal, but a
\nright, his counterpart Lucian Bode said in response, and added that it was not
\nnatural for Romania to only have obligations and no rights. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Lucian Bode: We told the Interior Minister that
\nRomania’s Schengen accession process must be completed in 2023. By virtue of this
\nEuropean concept of an area without internal border checks, joining Schengen is
\nnot only an aspiration of Romania, but rather a right granted under the
\ntreaties signed by all member states. As regards the decisions made today, we
\nhave agreed on an action plan to prevent illegal migration, and we have signed
\nthree cooperation documents. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The agreements signed in Bucharest concern the fight
\nagainst migrant smugglers and asylum abuse, and include a joint action plan to
\ncurb illegal migration on the east-Mediterranean route, which stipulates, among
\nother things, that Romanian police workers will be sent to the Austrian
\ninterior ministry and Austrian workers will be deployed at the N\u0103dlac
\ncheckpoint on the Romanian-Hungarian border. (AMP)<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner, says Romania is on the right track, but still has a lot to go before joining Schengen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":109,"featured_media":95506,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[32220,29612,40877,29120,29207,28976,29878],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-95505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-asylum","tag-border","tag-check","tag-eu","tag-migration","tag-schengen","tag-travel"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n