Nine O’Clock together with the Ministry of Administration and Interior (MAI) organised yesterday the round table ‘Is Romania prepared to join the “Schengen Zone”? The event stirred the interest of numerous Ambassadors and foreign diplomats who attended the debate that focused on the steps Romania has undertaken so far in view of joining Schengen.
The discussions were opened by the director and founder of Nine O’Clock, Radu Bogdan, who welcomed the participants. Bogdan said the roundtable was aimed at helping to assess what was done in order to join the Schengen zone, how Romanian authorities got involved in the process and what remains to be done from now on.
In the opening address, Vasile Blaga, the Minister of Administration and Interior of Romania reiterated that Schengen area accession remains “perhaps one of the government’s most important strategic objectives following European Union accession in 2007.”
Blaga explained that the country has already fulfilled many of the necessary stages and successfully passed six expert evaluations so far. He said that although Romania and the EU established to meet all conditions until March 26 next year, Bucharest is determined to complete the process until December 31, in order to have three months at its disposal “for necessary adjustments, should need be.”
In turn, Foreign Ministry State Secretary Doru Costea said Schengen accession represents a continuation of EU integration. He added that the Foreign Ministry, together with all authorities involved in the process, take responsibility to achieve all objectives that the process involves and voiced hope that Romania’s efforts will be regarded with confidence by all member states.
The Ambassador of Spain, H.E. Estanislao de Grandes Pascual, whose country holds rotating presidency of the European Union expressed his country’s solidarity with the Romanian government, as it shares the same responsibility of having an external border of the European Union. He also expressed Spain’s willingness to cooperate with Romania so as to avoid any past mistakes made by other countries in the Schengen accession process. “I’m sure Romania is ready to join the Schengen space,” he said. Accession doesn’t imply only disappearance of external borders, but also enhancing collaboration in judiciary, police, border control, fighting against human and drug trafficking, Pascual said, pointing out that besides technical aspects, the human factor is also crucial in what concerns training of civil servants.
Marian Tutilescu, State Secretary, Head of the Schengen Department with MAI and Marin Anton, State Secretary with the Ministry of Transport gave a presentation of the way in which their respective institutions are preparing for joining the Schengen space.
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