MEP Eugen Tomac stated that Austria’s current standpoint regarding Romania’s accession to the Schengen area is discriminatory, and if the Austrian side opposes our country joining the free movement area, on 8 December, such a decision meets all the elements to formulate a referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), according to Agerpres.

„What can we do if Austria blocks our access to Schengen? For many years, the only country that opposed our access to the Schengen area was the Netherlands. Here, a joint effort of Romanian and European action convinced the political decision-makers in the Netherlands to change their standpoint, and this week, Hague gave us good news. The Netherlands supports our accession. We were nervous about Sweden’s position, but we have the green light from Stockholm as well. The only country which opposes it is Austria, here the Government, through Chancellor Karl Nehammer and Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner, still maintains, absolutely incorrectly, that we should not be accepted in Schengen. Austria’s standpoint is discriminatory and we hope that Vienna revises its decision on 8 December, and doesn’t block us,” Tomac wrote on Sunday, on his Facebook page.

He argues that the approach of the Austrian side – that a country which recently joined the European Union, with reference to Croatia, is much better technically prepared than Romania – shows that the political decision is based on a different reasoning than the one based on objective criteria regarding border management.

„What is left for us to do if the Austrian Government remains the only one in the European Union that blocks us in Schengen? If Thursday, 8 December, Austria shall be the only state that opposes our request to join the Schengen area, I believe that all the elements are coming together to formulate a new referral to the Court of Justice of the EU – because the Regulation 2016/399 on a Union Code on the rules governing the movement of persons across borders is violated in an assumed manner. There is no solid reason to reject our accession to the Schengen area. In case of a blockage, our response must be prepared immediately. I will certainly ask the European Commission to defend European law and the Schengen Regulation against some political excesses, whether they are from Austria,” Tomac said.

In the same context, he brings to mind that, in Vienna, a decision was adopted 4 years ago through which Romanian citizens were discriminated by the authorities’ refusal to grant Romanian children indexed allowances according to the provisions of the European legislation, more precisely according to the contributions of the parents who carried out their the activity on Austria’s territory.

Agerpres