Austria's arguments for blocking the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area lack sound basis because Austria has accepted Croatia's accession, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said on Thursday in Brussels.
"Diplomatic dialogue continues, but it is becoming stranger and stranger, given that Austria says every time that it has nothing against Romania or Bulgaria, but opposes the enlargement of the Schengen area, while at the same meeting, it approved Croatia's accession. So the arguments are at least unsubstantiated", the head of state said.
Responding to a journalist's question in Brussels, Iohannis expressed the opinion that the Schengen agreement no longer works and almost does not exist anymore as several countries have closed their borders because of migration.
"One might say that we want to make an agreement that no longer works. This is a question we have to ask ourselves and the discussion about Schengen is older. The fact that Schengen has problems has been known for a long time and on the one hand there is a desire to modernize the Schengen agreement, on the other hand, there are people who are against everything, including enlargement," Iohannis was quoted as saying by Romania's Digi24 news channel.
/RY/
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