Romania will join Schengen with its land borders this year, prime minister says

Romanian prime minister Marcel Ciolacu stated during an interview on Thursday, October 17, that Romania will surely join the Schengen Area with its land borders this year.

Ciolacu blamed the delays in joining the border-free area on his predecessor and current competitor for the position of president of Romania, liberal leader Nicolae Ciuca.

"We have resolved the Schengen issue, both maritime and land, after a failure of the former prime minister, and by the end of the year, we will also close the land issue," Ciolacu said, cited by News.ro.

Asked if he had guarantees of this result, Ciolacu stated again that "this year Romania will enter Schengen with its land borders. Certainly." The prime minister added that he had additional information allowing him to make the statement.

"Both I, the minister of internal affairs, and the minister of foreign affairs have had good dialogue with our partners within the European Union, the Austrians," Ciolacu added.

Last week, the interior minister, Cătălin Predoiu, said that Romanian authorities are "fighting tooth and nail" to join the Schengen area by December 31. Predoiu added that he has not read about any criticism in the past year and a half regarding how Romania is protecting its borders.

Earlier this month, however, Austria's interior minister Gerhard Karner said that while the flow of migrants has decreased, the time has not yet arrived for Romania and Bulgaria to join the land-based Schengen. "Additional border controls have led to a decrease in pressure in many countries," said Karner, who gave the border between Austria and Hungary as an example, where the number of illegal border crossings has significantly decreased.

Austria, the sole country blocking Romania from joining Schengen, is still trying to form a government after the far-right Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) won almost 29% of the votes in the last parliamentary elections, followed by the center-right Austrian People’s Party, or OVP, with 26%.

On March 31, 2024, Romania became a Schengen member state with its airports and ports. As a result, people can travel by plane to or from other EU states without being subject to border checks. However, checks still exist at land borders.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos | Octav Ganea)