European Commissioner for Home Affairs praises Romania's progress in border control area

European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson praised Romania's progress in the area of border control, migration and asylum, during discussions in Luxembourg at the Home Affairs section of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, organised by the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union."On this occasion, the Romanian and Bulgarian delegations presented the measures adopted to strengthen border control and reinforce EU security. A central point of the Romanian delegation's intervention was the presentation of the excellent results of the Pilot Project agreed by Romania with the European Commission in March 2023, which has been implemented at the border with Serbia in the last 6 months," informs a press release the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MAI) sent on Thursday.Ylva Johansson was impressed by the success of the project, stressing that the excellent results of the measures implemented by Romania make it a model for all Member States.The European Commissioner also appreciated that through the actions demonstrated, the Romanian authorities are implementing in advance the provisions of the new Pact on Migration and Asylum."Since the beginning of the discussions on the state of the Schengen area and in support of the European Commissioner's intervention, a number of Member States have actively intervened in favour of Romania and Bulgaria joining the Schengen area. The Spanish Presidency of the Council has also reconfirmed that the completion of the accession process is its priority, for which it will continue to work and hopes that it will be a success," the source said.Among the concrete results of the pilot project are an updated and more efficient national legislation on asylum and return, participation in the Frontex Joint Reintegration Services Programme, an IT system for the management of return cases aligned with the Frontex Agency's IT system, efficient equipment and border control systems.But MEP Eugen Tomac criticized the fact that the Tursday agenda of JAI Council did not include “anything about enlargement, anything about Romania and Bulgaria.”   “This abuse of power has become more daring in conditions in which all European institutions have ensured us that EU priority in the Schengen matter is Romania and Bulgaria's accession. President Iohannis assured us last year that we would enter Schengen in 2023, while the government even threatened to sue CJEU, but that topic does not exist on the agenda of JAI Council where for two days they have been talking about Schengen. The government must immediately explain why we are not on the agenda,” Tomac wrote on his social page.   This time, the terrorist attacks of the last few days in Europe have set the authorities in many countries on fire, prompting many to take safety measures.   Therefore, Austria, Germany, Norway, Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Sweden and France have reintroduced border controls and Italy has just taken a similar measure, reintroducing control borders with Slovenia, thus questioning the future of the Schengen space. Italy has restored border controls with Slovenia as part of its strategy to improve internal security in the face of the threat of terrorist attacks in Europe, the government in Rome said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.