Senate's Tariceanu: It's very hard explaining to citizens why they cannot move freely in Schengen

It's "very hard" for the Romanian MPs to explain to their electors why they cannot move freely in the Schengen area, although the technical criteria have already been met, but this "sorrow" didn't trigger any populist movements in our country, Senate President Calin Popescu-Tariceanu said in the opening of the Interparliamentary Conference on the Future of the European Union.

The Senate President also spoke about Romania being pro-Europe.

"All polls show that more than two thirds of Romanian have positive feelings about the future of the European Union. The figure is significantly higher than the European average. Romanians truly believe that the four fundamental liberties, the internal market, the cohesion policy, the common agricultural policy and the EU's enlargement are processes that improve the daily lives of the citizens," he said.

The event is organised by the Romanian presidency of the Council of the European Union.

Tariceanu also discussed the fact that Romania is not part of Schengen.

"It's very hard for us, the Romanian MPs, to explain to our citizens why they cannot move freely in the Schengen area, although the Romanian Government has met all the requirements. They feel more and more like they are not recognized as European citizens with full rights, in which context the Romanian society should also be given credit as this sorrow did not trigger any populist trends," pointed out Tariceanu.

He appreciated that "however, the European institutions are frequently seen as places of good economy, but of bad politics." Thus, he highlighted the fact that, at EU level, "experts who were not elected" gained increasingly more ground.

"European elites got closer to the reduction of what we have been raised to see, in the context of the national politics, and they replaced [these values - editor's note] with the rules of bureaucrats, lawyers and other experts who weren't elected. So far, their approach did work. In the May election to the European Parliament there will be a test that will show if this trend continues or not," said Calin Popescu-Tariceanu.