The Romanian Member of the European Parliament, Vlad Gheorghe, has complained that Romanians are still being controlled upon arrival at Schengen countries’ airports despite Romania’s partial accession to the area.
Explaining the situation for Euronews Romania, Gheorghe who travelled to Paris, said that all passengers arriving from Romania, including him were being controlled by security agents, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
Gheorghe said that he saw this coming, stressing that he had received numerous messages from Romanians complaining about having to undergo security checks.
While security checks are nothing new as they can apply to all travellers regardless of their country of origin, Gheorghe stressed that the problem is that all Romanians are being controlled and not just some people chosen randomly.
It was not an alternative control, the passengers were not taken randomly, but all of them, just as if we had passed through the border checks.
Gheorghe Claims Security Controls Were Coorindated
While the Schengen Member States have not made an official statement on the matter, Gheorghe said he believed that this was a coordinated action in several countries.
According to him, Romanians have complained of having to undergo security checks when arriving at German and Austrian airports too.
The same stressed that Romanians had their passports checked and did not just go a formal security control.
It seems to me that it was an action coordinated in several countries. I also received these messages regarding airports in Germany or Austria, with the fact that, when getting off the plane, there were security filters where passengers’ passports were checked.
Gheorghe further said that as soon as he saw that only planes arriving from Romania were being checked, he asked the controls team what other planes would they be checking.
However, the tram did not provide a clear answer for him, saying that they were checking some planes here and there, raising suspicion that only Romanian and Bulgarian planes were checked.
Calling Romania’s partial accession to the Schengen Area a “bluff”, Gheorghe said that he will now be taking the matter to the EU Commission.
He said for Euronews Romania that he will be complaining to the Commission about the “abusive controls” that Romanians are being put through even though the country has entered Schengen by air and sea.
He also called on everyone who is checked at airports to inform him so he is able to gather enough proof to make the complaint.
Romania and Bulgaria both officially entered the Schengen by air and sea on March 31, 2024. The number of Schengen states now stands at 29.
