​With two days to go before a meeting to decide whether Romania will join Schengen, President Klaus Iohannis says negotiations are not over and discussions will continue until the last moment.

“They are still discussing, coming to an agreement. On Thursday, the matter will be considered by the JAI Council. This issue will be discussed in detail there. Until then, negotiations are needed. The text of this decision is still being discussed. They are still discussing and agreeing, we will not stop discussing and agreeing until the end,” the head of state said on Tuesday.

The European Commission stressed on Monday that Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia “fully meet all the requirements” to become full members of the Schengen agreement and expects all 27 member states to give the green light to their entry on Thursday, although there is no unanimity. It will be recalled that the Dutch government on Friday gave the green light to the accession of Romania and Croatia to the Schengen zone, but left its “firm” opposition and “refuses to accept” the accession of Bulgaria to the free movement zone.

And the Swedish parliament voted for Romania’s accession to Schengen, while Austria continues to oppose it.

Why Austria is against: the chancellor’s last message

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 Minister of Internal Affairs of Austriafor migrants who arrived in Austria without having previously been registered in any other EU country.

Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner reiterated last week that his country wants to use its veto power over the inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria in the Schengen zone.

Responding in an interview to “Kurier” about Austria’s possible veto against the accession of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia to Schengen, he answered:

“We think it makes sense to include Croatia now, instead of Bulgaria and Romania. It is important (in the case of an asylum system, mind you) that three main aspects work: protection of external borders, rejection (of asylum seekers) and distribution (of them). The truth is that a lot of things don’t work in these areas.”

When asked if his party, the ÖVP, was using the immigration and asylum issues to divert attention from the party’s internal problems, he suggested that these were political accusations by the opposition.

“The truth is that we already warned about this situation in April. No one raised this issue in the spring, but I warned that it would happen. We have also repeatedly raised this issue at the European level, because we were the first to suffer from this wave of economic refugees, most of whom come via the Balkan route,” he added.

Earlier, the Minister of Internal Affairs of Austria stated that more than 90,000 migrants have already been detained in Austria this year, of which 75,000 have not been registered in any other EU country.

However, the main route of migration to the EU does not go through Romania. The Western Balkans route runs through Turkey, Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Serbia, with the number of detected cases rising 141% to 15,900 in August, according to data from the border agency Frontex in September.

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