JHA Council Informal Meeting in Bucharest

Schengen is among top issues on the agenda of EU Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) current meeting in Bucharest under Romania’s EU Council Presidency.

Meeting of EU Home Affairs Ministers takes place on Thursday, while meering of EU Justice Ministers takes place on Friday.

Co-operation in data exchange and migration are also subjects of discussion.

RRA Reporter Carmen Gavrilă: Romanian Home Affairs Minister Carmen Dan announced that at JHA Council, Romania will place the issue of its accession to Schengen on the agenda; since it is an informal meering, Romania wants to observe the political atmosphere, especially because the decision on acceptance in Schengen is taken by EU Member States unanimously. So far, Romania has not formally placed this issue on JHA Council agenda, in order to avoid vote of rejection, being aware that the positions of some EU Member States are still unfavorable to Romania's accession, and the reason invoked by them has always been corruption.

As far as the meeting of the EU Justice Ministers is concerned, Romania’s EU Council Presidency has taken over from Austrian EU Council Presidency 15 files, most of them legislative ones, and has also proposed to make progress including in the effective commissioning of the European Prosecutor's Office.

RRA Reporter Alina Stănuţă: We have included this important topic (Schengen) on our agenda not only because it is a topic of interest for Romania and Bulgaria, but also because it also concerns other important issues, such as maintaining internal border controls for long periods of time, said Romanian Home Affairs Minister Carmen Dan. On migration, Minister Carmen Dan said it is absolutely necessary to speed up the process of finalizing procedures for temporary arrangements. These are a solution to respond to such crisis situations, a solution based on solidarity and volunteering. „Romania has repeatedly expressed the conviction that these two principles must characterize the European Union's response and that is why we have agreed to contribute to the common effort of other states”, Minister Carmen Dan stated.

A joint press conference is expected at the end of today’s meeting, where Romanian Home Affairs Minister Carmen Dan and European Commissioner for Migration, Citizenship and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopopulos will present the conclusions of JHA informal meeting.

Source:RRA.Translated by Miruna Matei