Romania's partial accession to Schengen "will not be felt in the economy and society"
Articol de Roman Muşat, 28 Decembrie 2023, 19:35
The representatives of the largest organization of freight carriers in the west of the country ask the government to intensify its actions in order to obtain Schengen accession with land borders next year.
They believe that Austria's agreement regarding the admission of Romania with maritime and air borders would be nothing but dust in the eyes, since most of the traffic is by road or rail.
The authorities in Bucharest and the members of the European parliament say that even this accession in stages will bring enormous benefits to the economy.
The representatives of the freight carriers in the west of the country claim that the partial accession to Schengen will not be felt in the economy and society, this is because the air and naval traffic would be minimal in Romania, compared to the land traffic.
So, there will continue to be long queues in land customs, and the economy and society will continue to be affected, according to the transporters' representatives.
A contrary opinion was sent by the MEP Victor Negrescu. He says that Romania's acceptance into the area of free movement by air, but especially by sea, brings enormous benefits from the start.
Thus, the country will be able to more easily transport products such as medicines or sensitive technical equipment in the free movement zone.
Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu also wrote that from March the importance of the port of Constanta will increase exponentially.
These reactions come after the Ministry of the Interior announced that Austria has accepted Romania's entry into the Schengen free movement area with naval and air borders, from March next year.
Today, the procedural approach will continue for the political agreement to be materialized through a decision, which requires the agreement of all member states.
The draft of the legal agreement reached the Austrian authorities today, who are analyzing it and will make their observations, government sources told RRA.
The cited sources also stated that they have no signals that the Austrian side will have significant objections.
Next year, the discussions related to the second stage of accession with land and railway borders will continue.
Translated by: Radu Matei
