Romania is preparing to join Schengen, a moment that we have been waiting for for over 10 years and which is approaching very quickly, and this is because, as many of you know, starting from March 31st, the Air & Sea Schengen, and trips made by air and sea will no longer require passport checks, fortunately, transit will become completely free.
Romania has been waiting a long time for this moment, and we officially know when we will join Schengen for air and maritime traffic, but we still don't know when we will also join for land traffic, and that's why Karl Nehammer didn't want to give up the veto he imposed from December 2022, even if he is alone in supporting such a decision, he insists on maintaining it.
Romania still continues to take steps to obtain Schengen accession even for land traffic, i.e. without controls at the usual customs points, Klaus Iohannis stating that at the European Council these days he will try to obtain the help of European leaders again to put pressure on Karl Nehammer to give up his typical Austrian stubbornness and lift the veto.
"I will once again highlight Romania's substantial contribution to protecting the EU's external border. At the same time, I will emphasize that Romania continues its efforts to complete the process of accession to the Schengen Area by lifting land border controls as soon as possible.
We will have an exchange of ideas on the new Strategic Agenda of the European Union, so that we can come up with concrete proposals at the summer European Council in June 2024, declared the president of Romania, Klaus Iohannis, before the discussions in the European Council in March 2024."
