Premium
MEP Victor Negrescu asked on Wednesday, in the Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament, that the European Parliament and the European Commission should challenge the legality of Austria's veto against Romania's accession to the Schengen area.
"The European institutions must react to the injustice committed against Romanians by the veto applied by the governments of Austria and the Netherlands against Romania joining the Schengen area. As the European Parliament has shown in the resolutions adopted, documents to which I actively contributed, Romania has been meeting all the technical criteria specific to the Schengen area for 12 years. I would like to point out that, during the time I was Minister of European Affairs, Romania joined the last technical cooperation mechanism on Schengen. The Social Democrat Group requested and supported the debate of this petition in order to highlight the discrimination committed by the vote in December, but also to request the reaction of the European Parliament and the Commission on the application of this veto, which contravenes European legislation and treaties," said the Social Democrat MEP, in a press release sent to AGERPRES.
Romania's representative in the European Parliament stressed the negative impact of blocking our country's accession to the free movement area and called on the European Parliament to keep the petition open and intervene directly in this cause, as well as on the representatives of Austria and the Netherlands to explain the veto, as there is no legal argument, and the reasons provided by them do not respect the European provisions and affect the credibility of the functioning of the European Union.
