Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said Thursday evening that Romania’s Schengen accession process is “irreversible” following a political agreement with Austria for partial accession in March 2024. “I am with Hungary, which holds the presidency, to complete Romania’s full accession to the Schengen area.” , emphasizes Cholaku.

• “After the 23rd of this year and this month, Romania also has a political agreement with Austria to join the maritime Schengen area, where we are very interested in the development of Constanta port and aviation. First of all, we must prepare for next year, I think that under the Hungarian presidency we must complete Romania’s full accession to the Schengen zone,” said Prime Minister Marcel Colacu on Thursday evening on Romanian television, News.ro reported. .

He repeated the idea that in 13 years Romania has fulfilled all the technical requirements for joining the Schengen zone.

• “For the first time, we have a political agreement on partial accession. That is, from this moment on, the whole process is irreversible,” the prime minister also said.

He mentioned it there will no longer be a JAI Council to decide on Romania’s accession to the maritime and air Schengen area: “I don’t think that the JAI Council will be held anymore, there will be a vote of the representatives of each state and this procedure will take place taking into account the fact that there are 2 days left until the new year (.. .) At the moment, the documents are with the lawyers of the Commission and the Austrian government for of the last form, which will be transmitted to all EU representatives.”

Negotiations on Romania’s accession to the Schengen zone are still ongoing, Vienna’s Interior Ministry Gerhard Karner said, thus curbing the momentum of Prime Minister Marcel Colaca, who announced on Wednesday that Romania would join Europe’s free movement zone, first by air. and then the sea, but without giving a calendar for the connection with the land border.

“Schengen Air means that passengers arriving from Romania and Bulgaria will no longer go through passport control other than the airline’s boarding control,” Austria’s Interior Ministry, led by Gerhard Karner, told AFP.

But “there are currently no actual talks on accession” and therefore “no date” for implementation, the ministry told AFP news agency.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs said that a political agreement on this was reached on December 23, but discussions will continue until a decision is made.