President Klaus Iohannis on Wednesday said that joining the Schengen Area "remains a major political goal for Romania," although the health crisis has seriously affected the Area.
"With regard to Schengen, in the context of the health crisis and the measures taken by some Member States, the functionality of the Schengen area has obviously been seriously affected. However, accession to the Schengen Area remains a major political objective for Romania and is part of the commitment that our country has assumed through the Treaty of Accession to the EU," said the head of state at the debate "Let's talk about the future of Europe," in which he participated online.
Moreover, he underlined that "Romania meets the necessary criteria for over ten years, being an example in terms of ensuring security for the European Union."
"We hope that our consistent efforts will be recognized soon and a solution to complete the process will be found in a timely manner. At the same time, joining the Eurozone is one of Romania's key medium-term goals," he said.
According to Iohannis, "Romania's membership in both the Schengen Area and the Eurozone is an important step in consolidating our participation in the essence of the European project."
"The effects of the pandemic crisis have shown certain shortcomings in areas where further efforts are needed to have better mechanisms in both Schengen and the Eurozone. From this perspective, Romania intends to play an active role in all efforts to in order to solve these problems," the President also said.
The debate, which was also attended by the President of the EPP Group, Manfred Weber, and the MEP Siegfried Mureriedan, was organized by the Group of the European People's Party (EPP) in the European Parliament.
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