PM Orban: Romania has met all requirements for accession to Schengen

Romania has met all the requirements for accession to Schengen, Prime Minister Ludovic Orban told a press conference held at the headquarters of the Permanent Representation of Romania to the European Union on Thursday. He had earlier met the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. "We have approached the Schengen issue. As we have stated, we reiterate that, from our point of view, Romania is meeting all the requirements for accession to Schengen," said the head of the Bucharest Executive. At the same time, Orban stated that "at the level of the European Commission, and at the level of the European Parliament, there is support for Romania, for Romania's accession to the Schengen Area". In this context, the prime minister also spoke of "unsupportive attitudes" towards Romania with regard to this objective and the fact that "determined steps" will be taken to convince the states that are not on our country's side. "We still need to take steps, in the end, to reach a consensus at the European Council level. There still are no blatant opposition, yet attitudes of lack of support for this objective, which I am convinced will change in favor of Romania in a reasonable time frame," the Romanian prime minister pointed out. Prime Minister Ludovic Orban paid a three-day visit to Brussels, where he met several European leaders.AGERPRES(RO - author: Oana Ghita, editor: Florin Marin; EN - author: Simona Iacob, editor: Maria Voican)