Six months after Romania’s biggest push to join Schengen failed due to a controversial Austrian veto, the country’s “goal” of joining by 2023 is becoming more unrealistic by the day.

Although the subject of Schengen itself is on the agenda of the Council of Justice and Home Affairs on 8 and 9 June (a ministerial meeting where the expansion of the free movement area could be again discussed and voted on), for now only an “exchange of views” on the “general situation of the Schengen area” and “monitoring of visa-free regimes”.

In addition, it seems that the indignation at the end of 2022, which was felt among the Austrians, who believed that their government’s rejection of Schengen was an internal political game, a risk that Panorama also warned about six months ago, has dissipated. Today, only a third of them agree with the inclusion of Romania in the free movement zone.

Read more at Panorama.ro.