On September 3rd, 2024, in Bucharest, Cătălin Predoiu, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Internal Affairs, together with Mr. Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Hungary, signed an agreement to amend a previous agreement between Romania and Hungary. This agreement, initially signed in Szeged on October 21st, 2008, aims the collaboration between the two countries in preventing and combating cross-border crime.
The new agreement will strengthen police cooperation between Romania and Hungary, complementing the provisions of the 2008 agreement, which is already a very useful tool for specialists from both countries. The new rules provide for more frequent meetings between representatives of the two countries, within a Joint Commission established by the 2008 agreement, in order to quickly respond to new needs and trends in the fight against crime, including in the context of accession to the Schengen area.
The Hungarian official is on a visit to Bucharest in the context of participating in the Ministerial Meeting within the quadrilateral cooperation regarding the Strategic Partnership in the field of green energy development and transport (Romania, Hungary, Azerbaijan, Georgia).
On this occasion, the two dignitaries exchanged views on the bilateral relationship, agreeing on the importance of streamlining the dialogue within the Strategic Partnership between the two countries, in order to develop solid and pragmatic ties. Interest was expressed to maintain an open approach, focused on concrete projects and strengthening sectorial cooperation, for the benefit of the citizens of the two states.
The Romanian Minister of the Interior highlighted the active dialogue between the two institutions responsible for the field of internal affairs in Romania and Hungary, as well as the fact that, together with his counterpart from Budapest, Mr. Sándor Pintér, he shares the same points of view regarding the very effective cooperation between the two institutions.
Combating organized crime and illegal migration are priority objectives for the relevant ministries in the two countries, and action directions have already been established in this regard.
The two dignitaries emphasized that the objective of eliminating internal land border controls remains the priority of the Romanian and Hungarian authorities, who have already successfully taken a series of measures to face the new operational challenges, so that the implementation of the second stages of accession to Schengen to proceed without impediments. All these steps have resulted in a decrease in the numbers of illegal migration, and the relevant authorities will continue to cooperate within the same parameters.
The Romanian official also referred to the constant dialogue that Romania has with the EU member states on this subject, stressing that for our country it is particularly important to approve the decision to eliminate controls at the internal land borders by the end of this year: „The results are on the table, the numbers don’t lie – in the last year, Romania recorded remarkable results in combating illegal migration – reducing this phenomenon to figures close to zero. The Schengen area will be stronger with Romania inside it, we have demonstrated this in the period that has passed since the accession with the air and sea borders. We have achieved good results, reflected in official statistics, and we will continue to focus on fighting organized crime.”
