Austrian FM meets Aurescu. Romanian MFA: Accession to Schengen cannot be artificially linked with other files

The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, met on Monday, in Brussels, on the sidelines of the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting (photo), with his Austrian counterpart, Alexander Schallenberg, at the latter’s invitation.

The Romanian Foreign Ministry said that Romania has expressed openness to Austria’s concerns regarding the increase in illegal migration, but Minister Aurescu said that “accession to Schengen cannot be artificially connected with other files for which Romania is not responsible”.

“On Monday, December 12, 2022, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bogdan Aurescu, had a meeting in Brussels with the Federal Minister for European and International Affairs of Austria, Alexander Schallenberg, in the margin of participation in the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, at the request of the Austrian side. The subject of the discussion concerned Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, following Austria’s negative vote in the Justice and Internal Affairs Council on December 8, 2022. During the bilateral meeting, which was also preceded by other contacts between the two ministers during the same day , as well as a telephone discussion two days ago, Minister Aurescu reiterated, in detail, the position of the Romanian side regarding Austria’s negative vote regarding the Decision on Romania’s accession to the Schengen area,” says a MAE press release.

The Romanian FM underlined the need to find a constructive solution to unblock the situation considering that Romanian citizens are fully entitled to benefit from the rights of belonging to the Schengen area.

The Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs showed, once again, that the claims of the Austrian side regarding a possible involvement of Romania in the generation of the flow of illegal migration to Austria, on the route of the Western Balkans, on which Romania is not located, do not correspond in any way to the statistics and the evaluations of the European agencies – Frontex, Europol and the European Union Agency for Asylum – as well as with the reports of the recent evaluation visits carried out in the perspective of the Schengen accession decision which formulated very positive assessments as clear as possible to the way in which Romania manages the illegal immigration issue.

The Romanian official pointed out that Romania expressed openness to Austria’s concerns regarding the increase in illegal migration and advanced proposals for support and cooperation, through the Ministry of the Interior bilaterally, as well as at the European level for the adoption of concrete measures. Accession to Schengen cannot, however, be artificially connected with other files for which Romania is not responsible. It showed that Romania has acted with openness and transparency in its relationship with all European partners, including Austria, and the degree of readiness of our country in applying the provisions of the Schengen acquis has been repeatedly confirmed by EU and member state experts, most recently during the two evaluation missions that took place in October and November 2022.

At the same time, he reiterated his firm disagreement with the baseless accusations regarding the so-called pressure or bad treatment applied to Austrian companies in Romania. The Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs showed that Romania will use all available ways to unblock the situation created by the rejection of the Decision on the full application of the Schengen acquis in Romania and that it is necessary for Austria to adopt a constructive attitude aimed at cooperation and to reconsider its position , to overcome the impasse created by the vote expressed in the JAI Council on December 8, 2022. The Austrian side reiterated its expectations from the European Commission, agreed that the Work Plan already proposed by it regarding the management of migration on the Western Balkans route is a first step towards responding to his concerns and argued for the importance of the overall decrease in the number of migrants arriving in Austria. He indicated that he is waiting for new proposals from the European Commission.