Loading ...‘The evaluation of the consulates in Chisinau and Istanbul with a view to Romania’s accession to Schengen Area has been completed. As you know, Romania has four areas of evaluation at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
The reports of the European Union’s evaluation team on the requirements for joining Schengen Area have been completed by a positive conclusion. It is about the evaluation of the consular section of the Romanian Embassy in Chisinau and the General Consulate in Istanbul’, Diaconescu said.
During the evaluation mission, the EU experts checked whether the two offices meet the requirements for issuing visas set for Romania’s accession to Schengen Area.
The experts’ conclusion is that Romania can meet the Schengen visa standards, the minister stressed.
Diaconescu announced that a range of technical recommendations was also made with respect to Bucharest’s moves to adjust its procedures to the European norms and requirements.
He explained the two Romanian diplomatic missions – in Chisinau and Istanbul respectively – were the only ones that the European Commission had sought to evaluate. ‘From this viewpoint, in terms of the Foreign Ministry’s institutional capability to act on the visa rules, the aspects are clear now and the technical issues were totally minor.
They related a certain capability for computerized equipment that we can achieve’, he said.
A EU evaluation team paid a visit in early June to the consular section of the Romanian Embassy in Chisinau and to the Romanian General Consulate in Istanbul to check whether the two offices meet the requirements for issuing visas set for Romania’s accession to Schengen Area.
The evaluation of the consulates is part of a broader verification to be carried out in several stages. Evaluations were carried out in Romania in this March with respect to police cooperation, while the data protection issues were verified in April and the visa issue in June; the maritime, air and land borders are to be checked in September, November and December.
After the end of the verification visits, the Schengen evaluation group drew up a report analyzing the phase in Romania’s harmonization of the specific provisions, that will allow to drop the controls at the internal borders.
The document will be submitted to the EU Council, which will adopt the adequate decision for each state with respect to the implementation of Schengen acquis.
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