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The president of the European Council, Charles Michel, said on Thursday that an "exchange of views" will most likely take place at the European Council meeting on the current situation regarding Romania and Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen Area.
I think it is very positive that a decision for Croatia could be made and I completely understand the position of Romania and Bulgaria. We will probably have the opportunity to exchange views on the current situation and I hope it will be possible to give a signal that in the coming months we will work in a positive spirit to make progress. This does not mean that we will have a formal debate on the subject, but I expect that the topic will be addressed in the European Council, Charles Michel said before attending the European Council meeting.
Austrian chancellor Karl Nehammer reiterated the problem of migration. He said that Austria must support Bulgaria and Romania.
Austria's position is that we have to support Bulgaria and Romania. It's not a problem of countries against other countries, it's a security problem. We have more than 75,000 unregistered people in Austria and we know that 20,000 illegal migrants are going through Romania. We know that as a result of the investigations carried out by the Austrian police. Now we have to find a solution to this problem. (...) You know that the Romanian Police has these people who are registered in Romania on record. In Austria we have registered more than 100,000 migrants and 75,000 of them are not registered. It is a huge number. It is a security problem for the entire European Union. This is the problem and it is necessary to say that it is not about being against Austria, Bulgaria or Romania. We have to solve this security problem together and I think we will do it, said Karl Nehammer, before the meeting of the European Council.
President Klaus Iohannis declared, on Wednesday, that he will raise the topic of Romania's accession to the Schengen area in the European Council, showing that accession is possible in 2023.AGERPRES
