"Keeping Romania outside the Schengen area is a great injustice"

The blocking of Romania’s accession to the Schengen Area is considered “a great injustice”, being only an agreement between the Netherlands and Austria, which is looking for pretexts to isolate our country from this area for which it meets the technical entry conditions, is the opinion of Roxana Epure, an IT entrepreneur, the owner of NextUp Solutions.

According to her, the Romanian business environment suffers, losing money and time for new investments and developments that would help the local economy.

“Keeping Romania out of the Schengen area is a great injustice considering that it has already been several years since we met the technical conditions for accession. It seems that a deal between the Netherlands and Austria is keeping us on our toes for a short time. The two countries have (petty) internal political and economic agendas that they promote by voting against Romania. Our country’s efforts to bring value to all regional political and economic initiatives promoted by the European Union are being ridiculed by two small states that are looking for pretexts to isolate us”, points out Roxana Epure, Managing Partner NextUp Solutions.

As an entrepreneur in direct contact with 5,000 companies, especially in transport, retail, e-commerce, tourism and manufacturing, which also depend on imports, Roxana Epure, Managing Partner NextUp Solutions, emphasizes that the Romanian business environment is directly affected by the lack of Romania’s presence in the Schengen Area. Thus, for this reason, the company NextUp Solutions loses the possibility of increasing its business by 30% annually, and in the case of economic agents that import or export, the loss is even greater.

“The business environment in Romania is directly affected, suffering, because it loses money and time, which means money, from which the local economy could benefit. Shipping is more expensive, bureaucracy is oppressive and delivery dates much less accurate when you have a number of borders to cross, especially regarding road transport. Also, Romanian transport operators are subjected to arbitrary abuses by customs authorities who have no business there”, adds Roxana Epure, Managing Partner of NextUp Solutions.