Almost four months after his visit to the Romanian capital Bucharest, Interior Minister Gerhard Karner has now met his Romanian counterpart in Vienna for talks on the Eastern European country’s accession to Schengen. Although there was praise for the cooperation between the police authorities in both countries and for the first successes in the fight against people smuggling, the Interior Minister maintained his no to the extension of Schengen to Romania.
There can be no change at the moment because the “system as a whole is not working, it is, if you will, broken,” said the ÖVP politician. However, the first successes of the Romanian authorities were praised: for example, at the end of June there were 37 house searches in Austria, Hungary and Romania, which led to arrests in Romania. This shows “that Romania is making huge efforts to fight human trafficking,” said Karner.
In addition, it was agreed that the disadvantages on Romanian territory would also be possible in the future in police cooperation in the border areas of Hungary, Serbia and Romania. A Romanian police officer has been stationed in Vienna since mid-June, and an Austrian agent has been stationed in Romania since September, Karner said.
‘Migration figures have fallen’
Predoiu, who has been in power since June, spoke of a good conversation between two partners with the same values and ideals, despite the rather disappointing outcome of the talks. Romania’s interior minister said he presented to Karner the progress made by Romanian authorities since the adoption of the joint action plan agreed in April. The results are very clear: “migration numbers have fallen”. It is now a matter of solving the remaining problems at European level and bilaterally. According to Predoiu, Romania is ready for this.
In December last year, Austria vetoed the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the border-free Schengen area. This was justified given the high number of asylum applications in Austria. In 2022, there were more than 100,000 illegal border crossings into Austria, of which 75,000 were unregistered, Karner said at the time.
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
