Fresh News

[CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY]

Nicolae-Ionel Ciucă: Good afternoon! One day before the JHA Council in Brussels that brings together the ministers of interior of the member states, we continue to make efforts energetically and using all available channels, levels, and instruments for Romania to achieve the desired outcome.

At this point, all member states support us in advancing accession, including the Netherlands and Sweden, except for Austria.

We also have the firm support of France and Germany, reconfirmed at all levels.

As regards Austria, we can say that we had meetings at the highest levels: the President of Romania met with the Chancellor of Austria, and meetings between the Ministers of Internal Affairs, and the technical experts of the two countries. The data including from the European institutions, Frontex, confirm that Romania is not on the migration flow routes that might generate fears.

In fact, we can't talk about a real justification at this point.

We all understand that the issue of illegal migration is very politically sensitive in many member states and three is a need for more effective response measures to this phenomenon, but blocking Romania's accession to Schengen will not bring the answers Austria wants.

On the contrary, Romania's accession will make the Schengen area even safer by involving Romania, which, after accession, will have even more instruments at hand, all the Schengen instruments at its disposal, to help control and contain this phenomenon.

And the other European partners and institutions – the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the other member states – fully share this assessment and evoked it, in turn, in the discussions of the last few days with the Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer and the Austrian Minister of the Interior, Gerhard Karner.

One thing is certain – we are determined to go to the end with the steps to join the Schengen Area including by asking for voting in this regard in the JHA Council meeting on December 8. The current state of uncertainty can no longer continue in this regard.

We have all the arguments, very solid ones, that support our requests, and we will rely on them in tomorrow's discussions with the interior ministers at the JAI Council when we ask for a Decision for Romania to be formulated, by voting, without any delay.

We have objective on-site arguments regarding Romania's preparation in the fields relevant to Schengen accession, and our determination to contribute to European security is firm. We have proven these qualities over the years, especially recently in the context of the crisis in Ukraine.

The European experts who recently came to Romania (in October and November this year) confirmed that we meet absolutely all the necessary conditions and,  therefore, Romania deserves to be part of the Schengen area. Moreover, the same experts showed that we ensure high-quality border management, we implement effective solutions in managing illegal migration, that we are active in international police cooperation and that the systems and training of our people are exemplary, even offering, in some aspects, examples of good practices for the rest of the member states.

We acted in total transparency and openness to dialogue with all member states. We have provided all the explanations and information requested, including, recently, to Austria on how we manage illegal migration. Moreover, we showed our openness to strengthening bilateral cooperation between the police forces, the border forces, as well as between those managing migrants, so that we can contribute by concrete solutions to solving illegal migration-related issues.

Beyond the actual situation of Romania and the credibility of the process: we cannot maintain a state of uncertainty, namely the lack of a decision regarding a member state that not only wants to become part of Schengen but has proven countless times that it is ready to join it, there is clear confirmation of this.

Tomorrow, at the JHA Council, we go to voting. Joining the Schengen Area is our national objective. Thank you.