On March 14th, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Cătălin Predoiu, had a working meeting with his Austrian counterpart, Gerhard Karner.
The discussions of the two officials focused on the subjects of common interest on the bilateral agenda, with an emphasis on the application of the Council Decision on the lifting of air and maritime border controls, the fight against illegal migration and the intensification of police cooperation, as a basis for the prospect of lifting also the terrestrial border controls.
Minister Predoiu highlighted the very good bilateral cooperation, intensified, with Austria, in the field of Internal Affairs, which is carried out within the agreed parameters during the previous years. The Romanian official highlighted the measures taken by the Romanian side to ensure the smooth implementation of Romania’s Accession Decision with air and sea borders starting on March 31th, 2024, as well as those related to the implementation of the trilateral declaration agreed in December 2023.
The sustained efforts of the Romanian side had concrete results, namely the further reduction of the number of illegal arrivals at Romania’s borders, a trend also confirmed by the FRONTEX Agency.
The national measures, doubled by those implemented together with the FRONTEX Agency and the European Commission, reconfirm Romania’s commitment to act with determination to ensure the protection of the EU’s external borders and, implicitly, the security of EU citizens.
During the meeting with his Austrian counterpart, Minister Predoiu expressed his full openness to continuing cooperation with Austria and other member states or partners in the region in areas such as combating illegal migration, border protection, the external dimension of migration and police cooperation.
For his part, Minister Karner confirmed the very good cooperation between the two countries and the unreserved openness to continue working on all subjects of common interest.
The two officials agreed to continue direct bilateral meetings frequently and consistently to achieve common goals.
