“Despite Austria’s opposition, Romania still has four possible solutions for joining the Schengen zone,” says MEP Victor Negrescu.

According to him, these are four scenarios:

• option 1 is for our country to demand that this issue be left on the agenda and insist that the discussion take place in the Justice and Home Affairs Council on December 8, where we can try, as other states have done in the past, to get Austria to support us;
• option 2 it is assumed that Romania, with the support of the President of the European Council and the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU, will put this topic on the agenda of the meeting. of the European Council on December 15-16 and insist on a positive vote. The Czech Presidency and Bulgaria are already making efforts in this direction;
• option 3 for Romania, it would be to insist on setting a specific date when this issue could appear on the agenda of the JVC, or, for accession to a Schengen area other than Croatia, after the final completion of the additional stages of evaluation created by the possible secession of Bulgaria;
• option 4 there is an appeal of our country to the Court of the European Union, but this can be done only after a vote within the framework of the EUC. This is an option that will take longer to complete.

Negrescu also says that, together with his colleagues, he is in contact with the European social democratic governments, with the European Commissioners, especially with Mrs. Ilva Johansson, who became a Romanian lawyer, and insists that the Netherlands should explain its support for Romania through the vote in the national parliament (this was achieved through a campaign dedicated to this desire of our country, which included both discussions with Dutch parliamentarians and press reports from the Kingdom of the Netherlands).

Two days before the EU Council, Austria opposes Romania’s accession to the Schengen area. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehhammer said on Tuesday that “time is still needed” to vote for Romania and Bulgaria to join Schengen. He repeated the arguments of the Austrian Minister of the Interior regarding migrants who arrived in Austria without being previously registered in any other EU country.

• The latest negotiations regarding Romania’s accession to Schengen. Johannis: We will discuss and agree until the last moment