It is premature to talk about the schedule of Romania’s accession to the Schengen zone, Foreign Minister Bohdan Aurescu said on Monday. Asked if he thought the Austrian chancellor was defying Romania with his visit to Bulgaria, Aurescu said he was not “feeling defiance” but was “rather trying to soften Austria’s sense of isolation at the European level”, after voting in December to , so that Romania, together with Bulgaria, remains outside the European zone of free movement.

• PHOTO A message sent from Bulgaria by the Austrian Chancellor inspecting the borders

Bohdan Aurescu made these statements during an intervention on Digi 24, saying that today, in Brussels, at this year’s first meeting of the heads of diplomats of the EU member states, he had discussions with his colleagues who would assure him of their support for Romania to join Schengen.

“It’s premature to talk about the accession calendar”

• “Germany strongly and actively supports us and wants to take steps next to Austria. I also received assurances of active support from Belgium and Italy, and also communicated with a colleague from Croatia, Spain, and Sweden. (…)
• All these foreign ministers firmly support Romania’s accession to the Schengen area,” Aurescu said.

He also said that he had received assurances from his Swedish counterpart about the start of “consultations” that the Swedish presidency of the EU Council wants to organize with the states that oppose the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen. We are talking about Austria and the Netherlands.

• “It is very important that these consultations, which Sweden will start, come to conclusions, and then we talk about the schedule. It is difficult to estimate that Austria will change its position before the internal elections (nr- from the end of January).
• It is premature to talk about the accession calendar,” Aurescu also stated.

The foreign minister also said that it is difficult to assess the accession calendar even in the conditions in which Bulgaria has to convince the Netherlands.

Will Nehammer’s visit to Bulgaria change anything?

Bohdan Aurescu does not believe that the Austrian Chancellor’s visit to Bulgaria on Monday can change anything.

Asked if he thought the Austrian chancellor was challenging Romania with his visit to Bulgaria, Aurescu said he “doesn’t feel defiance”:

• “I did not see it as defiance, but rather an attempt to soften the feeling of isolation of Austria at the European level after the vote in December, given that all the states support the accession of Romania.
• In addition, there is an opinion that the principle of European unity has been violated.”

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehhammer and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner are in Bulgaria on Monday, where they flew by helicopter with President Rumen Radev and Interior Minister Ivan Demergiev over the border with Turkey, where Bulgaria installed a wire fence in 2015 to stop migrants. . Austria’s chancellor is pushing for strong border fences on its border with Bulgaria, saying the country is left to defend its roughly 150-mile (240-kilometer) EU external border with Turkey.

Karl Nehammer posted several photos on Twitter, accompanied by the message that his visit is “dedicated to the joint fight against illegal migration.”

Before leaving for Bulgaria, the Austrian chancellor wanted to convey that Austria maintains its veto on the expansion of the Schengen area “until it works.”

After the JAI vote on 8 December, both Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehhammer and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner claimed that of the more than 100,000 immigrants or asylum seekers who had arrived in Austria, 75,000 were not registered anywhere, and this must have happened when crossing Austria. external border of the EU. They claimed that many of the unregistered arrived via Romania or Bulgaria, contradicting the Romanian authorities.