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Minister of the Interior Ion Marcel Vela discussed on Tuesday via video conference with European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson about the future Pact on Migration and Asylum and about Romania's Schengen bid, informs the Ministry of the Interior.
The main subject of discussion was the future Pact on Migration and Asylum, a programmatic document the European Commission intends to launch in the next period. The Romanian Minister welcomed the intention of the European Commission to relaunch debates on migration and asylum, as this is an extremely important subject for all member states and for the Union as a whole.
The IntMin also presented the aspects of interest for Romania, emphasizing its major objective of joining the Schengen area, given that all accession criteria have been met 11 years ago. Furthermore, he pointed out that the border guards at the internal borders with Bulgaria and Hungary would be much more useful at the EU's external borders or in support of Frontex missions.
In this context, Minister Vela mentioned the substantive participation of the Ministry of the Interior in the protection of the external border of the European Union and in the joint operations to combat illegal migration and related criminal activities.
In her turn, Commissioner Ylva Johansson was very interested to learn the viewpoint of the Romanian authorities on certain elements of the future Migration Pact, and also requested Romania's support in the forthcoming negotiations at EU level on this document, stressing that the Romanians' expectations related to the country's Schengen accession are legitimate, the release informs.
The two officials agreed to continue talks during an official visit by the European Commissioner to Bucharest.
