Brussels, 16/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, meeting European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in Brussels on Thursday 15 January, urged that his country be allowed to join the Schengen free-movement area.
He said that he wanted Romania to enjoy full membership of the EU so that “Romania can become a fully accepted and respected member of the EU”. He went on to say that Juncker “assured me that Romania would have full support for Schengen membership”. The issue of enlarging the Schengen area to include Romania and Bulgaria has been on hold since 2011.
Juncker and the Romanian president also called for an end to be brought to the cooperation and verification mechanism (CVM), a mechanism that has applied to Romania and Bulgaria since 2007 to monitor progress in combatting corruption and on the rule of law, during the course of this Commission, 2014-2019. The next report is due at the end of January/start of February. The two men also discussed the rate of absorption of structural funds and the situation in the euro area, Iohannis said. (SP)