Speaking for the first time after the negative vote on Romania’s Schengen accession in the Justice and Home Affairs Council last week, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis expressed his disappointment and assured that he would place the topic on the agenda of the European Council at the end of this week. But a new vote is not likely soon, he added.

“There will be a debate, and there will probably be different opinions, but a new vote will only be when the JHA Council meets again. Furthermore, it is hard to believe that there will be a change on the Austrian side soon,” he commented, according to Digi24.

President Iohannis stressed that Austria has unexpectedly changed its mind about Romania’s Schengen membership after it confirmed on November 16 commitment to a three-country expansion of the borderless area.

Furthermore, the Romanian leader said that Austria’s decision “is hard to understand.” On the one hand, it claims that there are too many migrants and Schengen’s expansion should be frozen until it gets repaired, but on the other hand, it endorses expansion to include Croatia, he commented.

andrei@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: Presidency.ro)