Romania on Its Way to Full Schengen Accession

Romania and Bulgaria now have limited access to the Schengen free circulation area

Corina Cristea, 06.04.2024, 16:02

“Obviously, they will monitor us carefully, and any error will be speculated by the Austrians to delay things, to justify what they argued. Of course, we know that their arguments regarding migration do not hold. The institutions of the European Union, Frontex first of all, through the data they publish, show that the Austrian accusations have no basis. On the contrary, Croatia, whose entry they allowed in 2023, is more on the Balkan migration route than Bulgaria and Romania.”

‘I think the most complicated problem we have is with legal migration from Romania, which has increased a lot – 100,000 migrants coming from Asian countries, especially in 2022-2023, which should increase to 250,000 this year’, says political scientist Cristian Pârvulescu

“They will have to be watched very carefully, because they can get on a plane at any time and go to Western countries. If they are no longer subject to controls at Romanian airports, we will really have a problem, and this temptation exists. They come to Romania, of course, because it is a slightly more open market, but also because they hope to be able to go to the West, and now they have an opportunity.”

However, the Romanian authorities have provided assurances that there will continue to be border police patrols in airports, which will ID all those who might violate the legislation, because those who come to work in Romania do not benefit from the right to free movement in the Schengen area, Cristian Pârvulescu reminds us.