Following Romania’s removal of air and sea border controls with other Schengen Area Member States on March 31, 2024, Austria will deploy several officers, to assist Romanian teams at the Bucharest airport during the control of passports and other documents.
In an interview for DC News TV, the Romanian Minister of Internal Affairs Cătălin Predoiu has confirmed that Romania will receive help in border management once it joins the border-free zone.
Commenting on the future collaborations between Romanian and Bulgarian officers, with those of other Schengen Members, the Minister has called them positive, as they assist both countries in strengthening their borders.
It means that when a Romanian border policeman takes an identity document in his hand, a passport, he looks at it and it seems to him that something is strange, but still he is not sure if it is a fake, a substituted person, you have a document expired and corrected, so still a fake, in the end, he consults with the specialist, the Austrian colleague who is next to him and tells him: look at this bulletin too.
He also clarified that this does not necessarily mean that at every Romanian port of entry there will a Romanian and an Austrian officer, yet in necessary cases, Austrian officers will be available for consultation.
Cooperation in other fields will also take place, in a bid to prevent illegal migration, human trafficking, drug trafficking, arms trafficking, organised crime.
Currently, 2,000 non-Romanian officers work at the country’s borders under the EU agency for the management of external borders (Frontex).
Both Romania and Bulgaria are scheduled to remove their internal air and sea border controls on Mach 31, 2024. The date of the land border removal will be announced only later.
Announcing the decision, the EU has pointed out that it is set to continue to provide substantial financial support and Frontex assistance to both countries, in order to make sure their borders with non-EU countries are efficiently supervised.
The EU Commission had insisted since 2011 that Bulgaria and Romania were ready to become full Schengen Area members. However, objections by several countries, in particular Austria and the Netherlands, have prolonged this journey so far. The gradual accession will take place after Austria had proposed such a thing, insisting that this is the only way for the country to remove its veto against Schengen enlargement.
