Austria's interior minister Gerhard Karner believes that while the flow of migrants has decreased, the time has not yet arrived for Romania and Bulgaria to join the land-based Schengen, the Austrian publication Kurier reported, quoted by Romanian Bursa.ro.

The Council of Justice and Internal Affairs, inaugurated on the same day, had on its agenda the evaluation of the two countries' readiness for full Schengen membership.

"Additional border controls have led to a decrease in pressure in many countries," said Karner, who gave the border between Austria and Hungary as an example, where the number of illegal border crossings has significantly decreased. 

He added, however, that the moment has not yet arrived for Romania and Bulgaria to join Schengen.

"We are on the right track, but not at the end of the road," he said.

Romanian officials expressed, however, confidence. Cătălin Predoiu, the minister of internal affairs, said that Romania is fully prepared to enter the Schengen Area with land borders.

"We have applied and fulfilled all the criteria to enter and land borders. We are perfectly implementing the Air Schengen decision adopted by the Council last year in December. We have significantly reduced illegal migration through the efforts of the Border Police and police cooperation. We will continue to apply all Schengen procedures and are ready to implement all the Schengen instruments, " said Predoiu.

Romania and Bulgaria were accepted for partial Schengen membership as of April 1, but the controls at their land borders were kept in place.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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