Romania is fully prepared to join the Schengen Area inclusively with the land borders, Minister of the Interior Catalin Predoiu declared on Thursday ahead of the JHA Council meeting in Luxembourg.
"We applied and fulfilled all the criteria to join with land borders too. We are perfectly implementing the air Schengen decision adopted by the Council meeting last December. Through the efforts of the Border Police and police cooperation, we have significantly reduced illegal migration. We will continue to apply all Schengen procedures and we are ready to implement all Schengen instruments," said Predoiu, mentioning that although no final decision is slated for today's JHA meeting, this will pave the way for it.
"We will discuss with our colleagues in the perspective of such a decision. We will continue to cooperate with the member states and the Commission to rigorously ensure the security of Romanian borders, and implicitly of the EU," said the Romanian Minister of the Interior.
Predoiu recently voiced his conviction that at the JAI Council Romania will receive positive signals indicative of a favorable decision taken by the end of 2024 regarding its full Schengen accession bid.
"Specifically, the JHA Council meeting of October 10 will discuss the Schengen Eurobarometer, i.e. the situation in all Schengen member countries, yet passing a decision is not on the agenda. At the same time, we took action via diplomatic avenues for strong signals of support for a positive decision for Romania's bid to be made by the end of this year. I am in constant contact with the Hungarian EU Presidency, the European Commission and the ministers of the interior of the EU states for promoting our objective," Predoiu said, as cited on the website of the Interior Ministry.
Between October 2 and 5, the Romanian official had series of meetings in Vienna, Prague and Munich to promote Romania's Schengen 2024 entry with the land borders.
"I had meetings with the Austrian Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner, Czech Minister of the Interior Vit Rakusan, Bavarian Minister of the Interior Joachim Hermman, as well as the Austrian Finance Minister, nominated for future European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Magnus Brunner. In these discussions, I insisted on Romania's merits and results in protecting the national and EU borders, combating irregular and illegal migration and the flawless application of all Schengen systems and codes," Catalin Predoiu said the other day.
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