Statement by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Cătălin Predoiu, before the JAI council in Luxembourg

Romania is fully prepared to enter the Schengen Area with land borders. We applied and fulfilled all the criteria to enter with land borders as well. We are perfectly implementing the air Schengen decision adopted by the Council last year in December. We have significantly decreased illegal migration through the efforts of the Border Police and Police cooperation. We will continue to apply all Schengen procedures and are ready to implement all Schengen instruments. I know that although today is not the day for adopting a decision, it is the day when such a decision is being prepared. We will discuss with our colleagues in the perspective of such a decision. We will continue to cooperate with the Member States and the Commission to rigorously ensure the security of the borders of our country and, implicitly, of the EU.