Predoiu and Ulla Krauss-Nussbaumer, the new ambassador of the Republic of Austria in Romania, discussed the common priorities in the field of internal affairs and the advancement of the Schengen Area accession process.
“The exchange of views offered the opportunity to review the most important aspects of bilateral cooperation in the field of internal affairs, with an emphasis on the subject of full accession to the Schengen area and the prospects of continuing the bilateral technical and political dialogue to achieve this goal by the end of the year in progress. In this context, it was highlighted that the next important meeting for this file will take place between the ministers of the interior, between November 21-22, in Budapest, with the participation of Romania, Bulgaria, Austria and the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council. The discussions revealed the contribution of Romania and Austria in ensuring the security of the EU’s external borders, in combating illegal migration and cross-border crime, including on the external dimension component, for a preventive approach”, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI) transmits, on Wednesday, in a press release.
Predoiu reaffirmed Romania’s commitment to maintain, in the future, safe and efficient border management practices, to apply all Schengen procedures, including border controls, and to continue to contribute significantly to the EU’s efforts to fight as effectively as possible cross-border crime.
The consolidated measures taken recently by the Romanian authorities together with Austria, by partners within the EU and in the region, as well as by EU institutions and agencies have materialized in important results regarding the management of illegal migration at Romania’s external borders, this being reduced to values close to zero, according to the MAI. In addition, all aspects agreed bilaterally with Austria are applied with very good results.
According to the Minister of the Interior, “these details are decisive arguments in the discussions related to the Schengen file. The issue of meeting the technical criteria for Romania’s accession to Schengen has long been resolved, with the successful conclusion of the 8 technical evaluation visits and the 2 voluntary visits from 2022. The mention of meeting the technical criteria remained in the public debate of some commentators of of the Schengen file out of inertia, the issue is no longer a topic on the agenda of discussions for years. The issues that remained under discussion in previous years were the control of irregular and illegal migration, border protection, secondary migration, return policies. The very good results on the ground of the Ministry of Internal Affairs on all these topics allowed the file to be successfully relaunched last year, resulting in the decision on Air and Maritime Schengen, structured discussions in a pro-active and constructive manner with the Austrian partners and the other European partners. Political decisions are in turn based on these developments in the field and on the stage of discussions at the level of the ministries of the interior. We will continue to work on this line of thinking and action, including at the Budapest meeting, we will continue until we reach our country goal”.
Beyond the Schengen file, the MAI from Romania remains interested in continuing the bilateral dialogue on security and migration issues with the future Austrian Government. In the opinion of the Deputy Prime Minister, the future must be built on an agenda for strengthening and improving European security, based on a common approach, on trust and fairness.
Ambassador Ulla Krauss-Nussbaumer appreciated Romania’s attitude, approach and efforts in the Schengen context and emphasized Austria’s willingness to further engage in cooperation initiatives that strengthen the security of EU borders and to facilitate obtaining effective responses in the field, based on a comprehensive approaches.
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Austria waives its right of veto and opens the Schengen path for Romania and Bulgaria. During a meeting in Budapest, on November 22, a package of measures will be adopted that Romania and Bulgaria still have to fulfill in order to become Schengen members, Kurier writes.
(source: AFP)
Source: jurnalul.ro
