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Romania's full Schengen membership is in Hungary's national interest, says Szijjarto
Romania’s accession to Schengen (land borders) as soon as possible is in Hungary’s national interest, stated the head of diplomacy in Budapest, Peter Szijjarto on Monday in front of the commission for national cohesion of the parliament adding that the government he is part of hopes that this will happen before the end of the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council (31st December), says the Hungarian news agency MTI.
He showed the difficulties resulting from the fact that Romania is not fully part of the Schengen area, Szijjarto saying that ‘Romania took all necessary preparation measures’ in order to be accepted, as the Brussels experts’ evaluation showed, and the almost unanimous support of the EU members.
When referring to Austria’s refusal to support Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, the Hungarian minister said that this is an exemple of applying double standards. ‘ Usually, when we refuse to support something, this is immediately seen as a breach of the ideals of the founding fathers and a shocking dissidence towards the European unity (…) but, when a Western European country does the same thing, it is considered the legitimate implementation of the rights coming from the EU treaties’ stated Peter Szijjarto.
He said that the Hungarian government is in permanent consultations with Austria, but ‘the domestic situation in Austria has become unstable after the recent elections which were not won by the forces governing until now.Even so, the winner is not given the chance to form a government’ he added.
Szijjarto stated that Hungary is among the supporters of the European action for Romania and Bulgaria to access fully the Schengen area as soon as possible. Romania’s accession would be, similarly, ‘in complete accordance’ with the interests of the Hungarian community of Romania, the Hungarian minister said.