Romania will stick to its 2015 target to join the euro zone, while the approval to join the Schengen zone should come by the end of this year, Romanian president Traian Basescu has recently said in an interview for the Financial Times. Basescu said he was hopeful that Romania and Bulgaria would win approval to join the Schengen border-free zone by the end of this year, in spite of objections from France and Germany that more preparation work is needed, according to FT.

The Romanian president said “2012 is an election year, when politicians can get extremely generous” with public funds, “but the people will have to pay for that generosity after the election”. “Maintaining the objective of 2015 for the euro generates the necessary discipline,” he added.

“Sometimes politicians have to pay the price when people don’t like measures,” said the Romanian president. “If growth will start to be consistent, probably the ruling party will be saved” at next year’s polls, he added. “Otherwise, not.”

Read the full FT article here.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: scx.hu)