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The social-democrat prime minister Marcel Ciolacu announced, on Saturday evening, that Austria "has made its position more flexible" regarding the Schengen area and agrees with the lifting of air borders for Romania.
"We broke the ice! Austria has made its position more flexible regarding the Schengen area and agrees to the lifting of the air borders for Romania. This means that Romanians will no longer stand in endless queues when flying within the European Union. We have made big efforts in the last months to reach this point and I am grateful to all those who fought for Romania," Ciolacu wrote on Facebook.
"After years of waiting, we will make this dream together too! Romania deserves to be in Schengen!", the prime minister added.
The National Liberal Party (co-ruling PNL, next to PSD)'s national leader and president of the Senate, Nicolae Ciuca, stated on Sunday, regarding Romania's entry into the Schengen area, that an eventual success is the consequence of the cooperation of all political forces.
According to the head of the Senate, an eventual success is the consequence of the collaboration of all political forces.
The chairman of the Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) George Simion stated on Sunday, regarding Romania's entry into the Schengen area, that accession only by air space will not solve "far from it" the queues that Romanian carriers have to endure.
"The biggest problem regarding the Schengen area, where Romania has the biggest economic losses, is in the area of road transport, that is, in terms of land borders. Accessing only by air space will not solve the queues that have to be the Romanian carriers suffer, but neither do the financial losses they suffer. Practically, nothing is solved. We agree to enter Schengen even with airspace, but not at the price of remaining without a well-established term for land borders, for road transport! If Marcel Ciolacu and the PSD-PNL coalition accept this poisoned fruit of Austria, to enjoy joining the airspace just to shut our mouths, but without knowing for sure when the land borders will be lifted, then we will be witnessing a huge betrayal of Romania's interests," George Simion said, as quoted in a press release from the AUR sent to AGERPRES on Sunday.
The AUR leader wonders what conditions Austria would have set in order to agree to the accession.
The minister of Internal Affairs, Catalin Predoiu, affirms that Austria's acceptance of Romania's entry into Schengen with air borders came for the time being through a press statement, which does not represent an official position, and he will take note of this position in two days, at the Salzburg Forum in Slovenia, where he will meet his Austrian counterpart Gerhard Karner.
He stressed that Romania is still "in the middle of the negotiation process" on the Schengen topic and the discussions are taking place on several levels: bilateral dialogue with Austria, trilateral with Bulgaria, quadrilateral with the European Commission, and multilateral with all the member states of the European Union, "everyone is involved in these discussions in their own way".
"During these months, we tried to show that it is much more advantageous to go to this measure, to apply the Schengen acquis in Romania from all points of view, including economic, for all countries. Any country that has investments here in Romania, a European country, strategic partners, everyone who has economic interests in Romania has to gain if we apply the Schengen acquis in the conditions in which we have demonstrated as a country that we can protect the border from illegal migration. We have among the lowest figures of illegal migration from Europe," Predoiu argued.
