Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said on Friday that he discussed Romania’s accession to the border-free Schengen area at meetings with European officials on his recent visit to Brussels, Belgium, adding that here are still things to be clarified bilaterally for the Netherlands to be convinced that Romania is meeting the conditions to be accepted in the border-free area, according to Agerpres.

„We discussed the Schengen subject, which is currently being analysed at the level of specialist committees. We benefited from the findings of the verification commission that carried out its activity October 10-12, findings that were positive and allowed procedures to continue, so that we can have the meeting of the JHA Council and have an analysis as relevant as possible, based on merit, because Romania has done everything that was necessary to meet the requirements of the Schengen acquis. Romania will clarify bilaterally with the Netherlands aspects that are necessary so that it can convince them that it is really meeting the conditions to be accepted in the Schengen area. I would like to emphasise that we will continue to show the same openness and keep the dialogue open at the level of specialists, at the level of the management of the relevant ministries, so that we can transparently put on the table all the data that is needed to remove any doubt about what Romania has done in order to meet all these requirements,” Ciuca said at the beginning of a government sitting on Thursday.

He added that on his visit to Brussels, the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), under which Romania’s progress with judiciary reform is monitored, was also discussed.

„As far as the CVM is concerned, we had a discussion, a discussion that was very well argued by Mr Predoiu, and I also presented the steps taken at the governmental level, at the parliamentary level, so that the laws will go through the entire process of public and parliamentary debate, be approved and to comply with all the requirements put forth by the Commission and be consistent with the requests that after the analysis the CVM will be lifted,” Ciuca also said.

Agerpres