An item on last week’s EU Council and Austria’s veto against Romania’s accession to Schengen was added to the agenda of this week’s plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

“With all the levers at our disposal, we keep the topic on the agenda and do everything in our power to bring Romania to the Schengen area, where Romanians deserve it,” MEP Vlad Botos wrote on Facebook.

President Klaus Iohannis says he was disappointed and angry after the JAI Council vote in which Austria blocked Romania from joining Schengen.

“On Wednesday and Thursday, we will have a meeting of the European Council, and I will definitely raise this issue. A new vote will take place during the JAI board meeting, and it is hard to believe that the Austrian side will change its mind in a few days. I will move forward and I am convinced that we will find a solution,” President Klaus Iohannis said on Monday evening.

We will remind you that Romania, which waited 11 years to join Schengen, this time did not enter the European free movement zone. Austria managed to block a favorable decision in the JAI Council on Thursday, as Schengen entry requires unanimity.

It was joined by the Netherlands on the condition that they oppose the accession of Bulgaria, and the vote was cast “together with Romania”. While Romania and Bulgaria remained outside Schengen, Croatia was admitted in a vote held on Thursday in the JCC Council, so that the country will enter Schengen from January 1, 2023.

Austria has named a large number of illegal migrants arriving in this country, one of the routes is Romania, data denied by the authorities in Bucharest.

On the same topic:

• The reaction of the chancellor of Vienna to calls for a boycott of Austrian companies in Romania, after Austria left our country outside Schengen
• Manfred Weber returns: “Romania deserves its place in Schengen”