“We have supported, are supporting and will actively and unequivocally support Romania’s accession to Schengen. And we, BCR, colleagues and shareholders, want to reaffirm our common position: we believe and invest in Romania! We believe in Romania, regardless of time and context, and we do this by being inspired by BCR’s customers and people,” Sergiu Manea, CEO of Erste Bank-managed BCR Group, told us.

“We believe in and invest in Romania, whether we’re talking about education and financial health courses, or whether we’re talking about financing more than 10,000 companies that create 600,000 jobs. We believe in and invest in Romania when we support our clients’ life plans and help them make the best decisions in the context of their financial situation. We believe and invest in Romania with the help of BCR’s 5,300 employees. We do this for 3 million people, our clients, who in turn believe and invest in Romania. We believe in Romania, we invest in Romania and we do everything possible as a bank to support the Romanian economy. We have done this whenever necessary, and we will continue to do so,” says Manea.

The CEO of Erste Group said on Thursday that he regrets the result of today’s vote in the Council

“Erste Group is a European company, particularly a Central European company. For us, #believeineurope is not just a wording, it is an expression of our deep convictions. It is not only about the fact that we believe in Europe, but about the fact that we support Europe and defend the European idea. This is especially true today, when the decision of the JAI Board has a direct impact on more than 5,000 of my colleagues and more than 2.8 million of our customers in Romania,” says Willy Cernko, CEO of Erste Group Bank.

According to him, Erste supports a strong Europe, and we support a strong European Union. “And we are convinced that only a single European Union can be a strong European Union. But the united European Union is one in which all EU citizens have the same rights and obligations. There are no second tier member states. It should therefore be our aim that all citizens benefit equally from the freedoms of the Union. This also applies to participation in the Schengen area.

We regret the result of today’s vote in the Council. Romania and Austria have many things that are closely related. Social, cultural and, of course, economic. Austria is one of the most important investors in Romania, and Romania, in turn, is a very important export market for Austrian companies.

The right of veto is the strongest position that an EU member state can take during a vote. We assume that the Austrian government has considered this move very carefully, and we respect that it must also consider security issues. Unity does not mean that all partners must always be of the same opinion without any discussion. However, it is clear that this move will have very tangible consequences for millions of EU citizens. Therefore, our common goal should be to quickly find a viable solution. At the level of Erste Group, we want and will contribute to the achievement of this goal, so we call on political leaders at all levels to take responsibility for finding a solution,” said Erste’s CEO.

We will remind you that the Austrian bank Raiffeisen Bank, which operates in our country, reacted after Austria blocked Romania’s entry into Schengen. Officials of the Austrian bank are surprised by Vienna’s decision, but specify that they do not comment on “decisions of a political nature.”