Romania’s Interior Minister Lucian Bode said on Monday that Romania meets all the technical conditions for joining the Schengen area and expressed his belief that all the European Union member states will make a decision favourable to Romania, according to Agerpres.

„Romania is meeting all the technical conditions for Schengen accession. After last week’s evaluation visit, during the JHA Council meeting in Luxembourg on Friday, both the European Commission, through the voice of commissioner Johansson, and the Czech Presidency, through the voice of the Czech interior minister, requested that at the next JHA meeting in December the expansion of the Schengen area be on the agenda. At the end of October, we will have the first results presented in the technical commission, of this evaluation visit to Romania and Bulgaria, and on account of those results I am convinced that all the states (…) will be able to take a decision favourable to Romania,” said Bode at the Parliament House.

He added that a favourable report by the evaluation commission will make the Netherlands agree on Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, adding that he expressed his willingness to submit all the necessary complementary information to achieve the goal.

„I had a very good meeting with the Dutch ambassador in Romania, I had a discussion on the sidelines of the JHA council, a bilateral meeting with the Dutch minister and I want to tell you that, on the one hand, the Dutch minister emphasised the important played by Romania in this extremely complicated geopolitical context with this absurd war on the border, highly appreciated the way in which Romania has managed the humanitarian crisis generated by this war and said that he is waiting for the result of the evaluation commission and, on account of the result, the Netherlands will definitely take a decision. I expressed my availability until the end of October, when the result of the evaluation will be presented, for bilateral meetings at technical level to discuss any aspect complementary to those verified during the evaluation visit. So, I hope that the Netherlands will receive all the information by October 26, 27, 28, when the report will be presented and, obviously, a favourable report for Romania will hopefully determine the Netherlands to cast a yes vote.”

Agerpres