January 1, 2025 is the day that will mark Romania’s full accession to the Schengen area together with Bulgaria. Today, [the 12th of December, 2024] in Brussels, the JHA Council formalized the decision that had already been politically agreed at the Budapest summit on November 22 organized by the Hungarian EU Presidency.

After a delay of 13 years due to political factors, Romania is finally taking the well-deserved step towards European integration. We have succeeded in eliminating a double standard, thus doing justice first and foremost to Romania’s citizens, to the communities which have been wronged by the political delay in our accession to the area of free movement.

Recalling the allegations – some of which have been extremely worrying – in the public arena over the last two years, it should be emphasized that it was not these that helped us achieve our objective, but the well-timed political and diplomatic efforts and effective coordination of the steps taken at various levels.

The winners are, first and foremost, the citizens, both those who travel frequently and thus escape waiting times and humiliation at the borders, but I believe that those who have not crossed any Schengen borders in recent years, but benefit from Romania’s increased degree of integration into the EU, are also winners.

This is obviously a gain for our country’s economy by eliminating the losses suffered by transporters, but it is also a gain in terms of prospects by making Romania more attractive to foreign investors and the increase in investment which will also bring an increase in the number of jobs. On the economic front, estimates show medium-term gains of between 0.7% and 1.2% of GDP.

The winner is the European Union itself. As I have said many times over the last 2-3 years, during our demarches in the European Parliament, Romania’s failure to join the Schengen area was not only a failure of our country, but also a failure of the European Commission.

Logically, I now believe that the completion of our accession is a gain for the EU, for the security of our external borders, which is well ensured by Romania and Bulgaria, and for the preparation of the reconstruction process in Ukraine, which will be facilitated by our membership of the area of free movement.

 

First published in Romanian on the 12th of December 2024, on the Stirile Transilvaniei portal.