Accession to Schengen is still "an achievable goal"

Teodor Baconschi, Foreign Minister, asserts that the adhesion to the free-travel zone remains a real target despite the exposure of the border control proved by the recent anti-corruption operations that took place at the border line.

At a press conference related to the last year balance sheet, Teodor Baconschi seemed to rely on the fact that by the end of this year, Romania would have managed to obtain the political agreement from the European members for its integration into the free-travel zone.

The Foreign Minister claimed that Romania is ready for adhesion to Schengen but he outlined that this area seems to have some weak points that all member states would like to take into account in the future.

The Foreign Minister mentioned that security force was indivisible and that Romania didn’t have different interests so far but it wanted a less weak European Union frontier.

"We are ready. After being assessed seven times, Romania’s national report has been adopted. France too, revealed its assessment reserves while Bulgaria must be submitted to a new revaluation at mid March".

"I hope that they will manage and that we will come back to line and we hope that in June, until the collapse of the Hungarian presidency of the Council we will have taken a political decision with a clear date for the second term of the year", Teodor Baconschi declared.
"So far, the minister added that he had received a letter from his French correspondent who expressed his desire to resume certain general topics stated in the bilateral agenda and some topics related to the improvement of the roadmap".

Translated by: Cristina Anamaria Maricescu
MA Student, MTTLC, Bucharest University