Romania to be in Schengen in a month’s time, social democratic leader says

The president of the Romanian Social Democratic Party (PSD), Marcel Ciolacu, recently said that Romania will be welcomed into the Schengen area within a month’s time.

The PSD leader also said that it would be unfair for the current members to keep Romania out.

Schengen is an area comprising 22 European countries that have officially abolished all passports and all other types of border control at their mutual borders. Membership would ease trade and allow Romanians to travel in the EU without having to stop for any kind of border controls.

Romania, Cyprus, and Bulgaria are the only EU members who are not in Schengen. Croatia, currently out, is expected738182) to become a member at the beginning of 2023.

“It’s completely unfair. I do not believe that any European state can afford to deny Romania this right, and not necessarily [deny it] to the Romanian state, but to the Romanian people. In a month’s time, Romania will be accepted in the Schengen area,” Ciolacu said, cited by Digi24.

Ciolacu also admitted that Romanian politicians are partly to blame for the fact that Romania is not yet a member of Schengen.

“Maybe we are all to blame – not all of us equally, but there is a common guilt,” he said, before launching a veiled attack at president Klaus Iohannis, who enjoys the support of the National Liberal Party (PNL), PSD’s center-right coalition partners.

(Photo source: Marcel Ciolacu on Facebook)