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Romania will consolidate the Schengen Area and it is not at all fair to continue to have only a partial integration in this European area of free movement, our country being prepared to cooperate for the protection of the borders and the fight against illegal migration, the minister of Internal Affairs Catalin Predoiu said on Monday, told Agerpres.
"We will strengthen the Schengen Area and it's not fair at all to continue to have only a partial integration within the Schengen Area. It's true that we have made an important step in December last year, entering the Schengen Area with the Air and Sea borders (from 31 March 2024, ed. n.), but I think this progress should be followed by another step this year. And we will work on that with our colleagues and friends from Austria, from other member states. We are ready to cooperate concerning the border protection, illegal migration and also police cooperation. We are performing very well in this respect and I think this should be the base for the decisions to follow. That's why I said that in terms of migration, in terms of border protection, Romania is a very good example and we are ready to contribute with our expertise to the strengthening of the entire European Union and as well as the Schengen area,'' the Deputy prime minister Catalin Predoiu said before the Justice and Home Affairs Council reunion.
An important topic on the agenda of the meeting of European interior ministers is the fight against drug trafficking. The ministers would adopt a decision formulating a recommendation regarding the implementation of the best practices regarding the capacities of the member states to combat drug trafficking.
Regarding this topic, Catalin Predoiu emphasized that in order to combat drug trafficking, a phenomenon that is becoming "one of the main vulnerabilities of the European Union", urgent measures are needed and cooperation between the member countries must be strengthened, which should allocate more police forces for this purpose.
"In Romania, we started a very solid campaign on that. The Supreme Council for National Defence (CSAT, ed. n.) made an important decision, forming an inter-institutional work group. Among the institutions, the Ministry of Internal Affairs is present and we cooperate in order to dismantle the groups of organized crime dealing with drug trafficking and also human trafficking," the Romanian Internal Affairs minister said.
Another topic on the agenda of Monday's meeting is migration and especially the external dimension of this phenomenon that affects the stability of the EU and its member states. Minister Catalin Predoiu recalled that our country took serious measures to combat illegal migration, such as the pilot project put into practice with Serbia, the result being that illegal migration dropped to zero at the common border.
In 2023, only 40 people crossed this border illegally. Predoiu announced that this project will continue and that he signed on Monday morning, together with the European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson, a letter regarding the consolidation of this initiative, Romania being prepared to make its experience available to all other EU member states that wish to cooperate.
