Minister Comanescu: Romania's accession to Schengen would strengthen this space

The minister of external affairs, Lazar Comanescu, had on Monday at Vienna a meeting with his counterpart, Sebastian Kurz, where he said that Romania’s accession to Schengen would strengthen this space.

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the two ministers discussed about the development priorities of the bilateral relationship, underlining the political and economic relations between the two states.

The officials talked about the good integration of Romanian community in Austria and its potential of catalyst in a bilateral relation consolidation.

Comanescu and Kurz also discussed about the bilateral cooperation with the perspective of bearing by Austria “and Romania the biannual presidency of European Union Council in 2019, following a management between the two states and Finland of the working program”.

This is why they agreed on an intense dialog for the continuation of bilateral relations development, but also for a better coordination of the positions in reaching the common interests at regional and European level as well as the cooperation consolidation for taking over the presidency of the organization for security and co-operation in Europe in 2017 by Austria.

According to the ministry of external affairs, Comanescu underlines that “Schengen zone has to be not only maintained, but also consolidated and the Romania’s accession to Schengen would strengthen this space.”

Regarding the current files on the European and international agenda, the two ministers had an exchange of opinions about migration, Schengen zone functioning and the evolution of the Eastern neighborhood of European Union.