Romanian PM Ciolacu praises PM Orbán’s efforts concerning Schengen accession

Hungarians have for a long time had a vested interest in Romania being part of the Schengen area and enjoying its benefits together with Hungary and “it is now happening”, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday.

Orbán told a joint press conference with Romanian counterpart Ion-Marcel Ciolacu that they had agreed to follow a common plan during the Hungarian presidency of the European Union, and the goal was that Romania should join Schengen during the Hungarian presidency. He added that this had been a very difficult task and “we discussed it many times whether it was realistic at all during this year, considering that it had not happened for 13 years”. “It could have happened already 13 years ago but it has not happened since,” he added.

Orbán said a “political action” had to be taken “to transform this 13-year period from lack of success to success”.

Orbán said they had prepared a working plan and identified which countries were against the enlargement, and then convinced them that there was a historic opportunity. He added that few people had expected that Romania’s accession would happen under the Hungarian presidency, “which strongly demonstrates that the two countries share a common history and we both understand that one country’s success alone is not enough, but the neighbour’s success is also needed for the success of both”.

Economy gains impetus

He also said that “when the barriers were taken down first at the border with Austria and later with Slovakia, and Slovenia and most recently with Croatia”, not only the economy gained impetus, but the quality of life changed in the entire region. Orbán said it was not yet possible to assess precisely the significance of the changes that Romanians and Hungarians living in the border regions will experience.

There are currently 12 public road border crossing stations between Romania and Hungary, and this number would rise to 22 from January 1 because some of the crossings could only be used partially so far, Orbán said, adding that these will be freely available now. He added that when people living near the border wanted to cross to a neighbouring settlement, they had to travel an average 37 kms and this would drop to around 20 now.

Orbán said “there is an opportunity for a new era to start in relations between the two countries, the foundations for trust are now given, because we have achieved a joint success”. He referred to his Romanian counterpart saying that Hungary was an important country for Romania from an economic point of view, adding that Romania was extremely important for Hungary from the point of energy security.

Ciolacu praised Hungary’s efforts

“Last year we could buy 1.75 billion cubic metres of gas through Romania,” Orbán noted. He said that Romania was also a reliable country in terms of nuclear fuel transits, and the more energy cooperation through Ukraine got stymied , the more important cooperation with Romania became to Hungary.

Ciolacu said Orbán had a major role in bringing Romania’s Schengen accession to success, saying that “it would not have been possible had it not been Hungary holding the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.”

He said that the Schengen accession would result in 2 percent GDP increase for Romania, and the growth will most certainly also be reflected in Hungary because “it will be the gate through which Romanian products reach Europe”.

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