Austria/Romania – After several months of tension between Bucharest and Vienna over Austria’s veto against Romania and Bulgaria joining the Schengen area, the Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu announced on Saturday 9 December a significant breakthrough in the talks:

“Romania deserves to be in Schengen!”

“We broke the ice! Austria has softened its stance on the Schengen area and agrees to lift the air borders for Romania. This means that Romanians will no longer have to stand in long queues when flying within the EU. We have worked hard in recent months to get to this point and I am grateful to all those who fought for Romania. Minister Predoiu has a mandate to see the Austrian Interior Minister [Gerhard Karner] and bring the negotiations to a successful conclusion. After years of waiting, we will achieve this dream together! Romania deserves to be in Schengen!”

“The Schengen system is now broken and needs to be repaired”

Receiving his Bulgarian counterpart Nikolay Denkov in Vienna on 24 October, Chancellor Karl Nehammer stressed Austria’s „clear position” on this issue: “Schengen enlargement cannot take place at the moment. […] We currently have a situation where more and more states are beginning to introduce bilateral border controls. […] The Schengen system is now broken and needs to be repaired. […] Then the pressure will ease, then the bilateral border controls will also be withdrawn, then we can talk about Schengen.”

“Chancellor Nehammer’s opinion [is] totally unfair and incorrect”

For his part, in an interview with the Bucharest daily Adevărul, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu described Austria’s position as „totally unfair and incorrect”: „The whole of Europe has said [that Schengen no longer works] and the European Council has said this and there are a lot of countries that have asked, in the context of the Middle East conflict, for stricter management of people crossing the border. We have the Schengen area. Until it is abolished, Romania wants to join and we will continue negotiations. We are trying to get as close as possible to this negotiation in December. At the moment, Chancellor Nehammer does not want Romania to join the Schengen area. We will continue to use diplomatic channels and with all the power of persuasion to change Chancellor Nehammer’s totally unfair and incorrect opinion.”

Romania and Bulgaria should accept Afghan and Syrian asylum seekers

The evolution of the Austrian position has also been confirmed by the Austrian press, which also cites the conditions that Vienna would demand in return for this inflection in the air transport sector: “The Frontex mission in Bulgaria should be tripled, money for the border protection infrastructure should be provided by the EU Commission; increased border controls between Bulgaria and Romania and between Hungary and Romania; the deployment of document advisors from Austria to the airports in Bucharest and Sofia; the acceptance of asylum seekers by Romania and Bulgaria, especially Afghans and Syrians.”