Romania will continue to be part of the solution for the efficient protection of the external border of the European Union and our country’s expectation to join the free movement area is „legitimate,” Foreign Affairs Minister Bogdan Aurescu stated, according to Agerpres.

The head of the Romanian diplomacy had political consultations in trilateral format with the French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna and with Dutch Second Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Wopke Hoekstra, and subsequently, the three officials had a news conference.

„Today as well, I highlighted that Romania’s expectation regarding the access to the free movement area is legitimate, fully justified, being considered both by our European partners and European institutions as being the expression of a powerful effort which we carried out in the past years, including in the last period, these partners of ours and these institutions fully recognizing the efforts and these progresses accomplished by Romania,” Aurescu said in his intervention.

He added that „the degree of our country’s preparation has also been confirmed by the mission of experts which took place in Romania in October and November.”

The minister talked about the discussions he had regarding the accession to Schengen and mentioned that „it’s not only about a file that interests Romania, but it is about a file that interests the European Union as a whole, being about the concrete application of the principle of unity and the principle of European solidarity.”

„Moreover, Romania will continue to be part of the solution for strengthening security, for the effective protection of the external border of the European Union – this is also recorded in the Declaration that I signed today – to the benefit of all European citizens, including to the benefit of Romanian citizens,” Bogdan Aurescu pointed out.

He also mentioned that Romania „has a constructive approach in terms of supporting the adoption and implementation, at European level, of measures to concretely combat the phenomenon of illegal migration at the external borders of the European Union, which must be strengthened.”

„This is Romania’s standpoint, even if we reject the artificial connection between the accession to Schengen and the developments at European level in terms of illegal migration,” the head of the Romanian diplomacy pointed out.

Agerpres