Romania to seek extraordinary JAI Council for Schengen enlargement in December

Romania's prime minister Marcel Ciolacu (PSD) told Bloomberg that he plans to ask Spain, which holds the rotating presidency of the EU, to organize an extraordinary meeting of the JAI Council in December to discuss Romania's Schengen candidacy, Digi24 reported. He said Romania would weigh legal steps to break the deadlock.

The option of suing Austria for its ban lost traction among Romanian politicians, however, particularly after the European Court of Justice rejected an appeal on this topic filed by MEP Eugen Tomac. Such an option was mentioned previously by PM Ciolacu, but president Klaus Iohannis said in the meanwhile that the procedure is cumbersome as "there were not two lawyers with the same opinion" on the outcome.

Marcel Ciolacu also pointed out that Romania could consider decoupling from Bulgaria if the negotiations do not lead to a good result. However, a possible decoupling is technically difficult.

In the interview with Bloomberg, Ciolacu criticized the fact that Austria is covered by an air defence system at the EU level, although it is not a NATO member, while Romania, a member of the alliance, contributes to the defence of the region. Basically, Austria benefits from the defence to which Romania contributes but keeps it at the Schengen door, the Romanian official said.

"It is very difficult for me to accept that Austria benefits from the European Sky Shield initiative, even though it is a neutral country, while we allocate 2.5% of GDP to defence," said Marcel Ciolacu, according to B1tv.ro.

(Photo source: Inquam Photos/Octav Ganea)