Kelemen Hunor expects that Romania will be able to enter the Schengen area with its land and water borders from January 1, 2023, and its airport border crossings from March 1. The Deputy Prime Minister of Romania spoke about this at his press conference in Arad on Thursday afternoon, in response to a journalist's question.
Kelemen Hunor said: the European Union only makes Schengen accession dependent on technical conditions, and Romania fulfilled these conditions already in 2011. He added that he was also a member of the government in 2011, when the European Commission informed the Romanian government about this. He added that the country has not been able to join since then because some member states vetoed it.
He believed that France and Germany already support the accession, he is not even aware that Finland would oppose it. "There is still a certain resistance in the Netherlands, but they are already leaning towards acceptance," said the politician, adding that Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte is expected to visit Bucharest in the coming months. "I am convinced that the Netherlands also understands that the blocking cannot be sustained based on criteria that have nothing to do with the technical conditions of Schengen," stated Kelemen Hunor.
The politician noted: by the end of the year, the European Commission will check again whether Romania fulfills the technical conditions, and hopefully everything will be fine. If this happens, in January, Romania is expected to be able to join the Schengen zone together with Bulgaria and Croatia, which ensures free crossing of the Romanian-Hungarian border without documents being checked. Kelemen Hunor added: if the accession takes place, it will become Romania's responsibility to stop the wave of migration at the external border of the Schengen area. However, the country is prepared for this.
In response to a journalist's question, Kelemen Hunor also addressed the story in Nagybánya, when mayor Catalin Chereches covered up the signs of a trumpet pastry stand, which were only in Hungarian, with Romanian flags, and when deputy mayor Zsolt István Pap encouraged the trumpet pastry chefs to remove the flags, he revoked the powers of the deputy mayor.
The politician believed that the mayor of Nagybánya tried to remove the Hungarian deputy mayor from his position with the action, but he did not achieve his goal. He added: the product name kürtőskálács - just like hot dogs or kebabs - is known by everyone and is also written in Hungarian on the kürtőskálács stalls in Bucharest, but it doesn't bother anyone there.
Source: vasarnap.hu
Featured image: MTI/Gábor Kiss
