2023-04-29 10:47:06
The former US ambassador in Bucharest, Adrian Zuckerman, attributes the Austrian government’s blockade of Romania’s Schengen accession to Russian influence.
The Romanian public news channel TVR Info said the former US diplomat on Friday evening that “Austria, Hungary and the Netherlands should be ashamed” of more or less openly blocking the expansion of the border-free Schengen area to include Romania.
The reasons for the Schengen veto in December were different: while in Austria and Hungary, from his point of view, “Russian influences” were clearly at play, the attitude of the Dutch authorities once morest the Schengen expansion to include Romania and Bulgaria was more due to “protectionism”. , according to Zuckerman.
The former US head of mission described the arguments recently put forward by Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) during his visit to Bucharest once morest expanding the Schengen region to include Romania as “simply incomprehensible”.
The big trafficking rings are at work in the Netherlands, France and Western Europe in general, not in Romania. What is currently happening is a “shame”, the Romanian authorities should not accept the status quo, but have to “fight” for their country to join the Schengen, according to the US ambassador, who will be in Romania between 2019 and 2021.
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