The petition regarding Romania’s entry into the Schengen area submitted in January by the Association for Clean Energy and Combating Climate Change in the European Parliament was accepted to be discussed urgently in the Committee for Petitions, on March 22, announced Răzvan Nicolesc, the president of the association.

“It is good that our petition regarding the abusive and anti-European treatment by the Austrian chancellor regarding the accession of Romanians to the Schengen area was accepted to be discussed in the European Parliament as an emergency. We will go to Brussels on March 22 and say that Romanians have the right guaranteed by the EU treaties to be in Schengen, and the European Union must remain the space where the rules and treaties must be respected. Our approach is to defend the rights of Romanians, but also the foundations on which the European Union was created,” Răzvan Nicolescu, former Minister of Energy, told Agerpres.

The Association for Clean Energy and Combating Climate Change submitted, on January 9, a petition asking the European Parliament to “get out of passivity and fulfill the legal obligations to represent all EU citizens”.

In this petition, the representatives of the association point out that on June 9, 2011, the EU Council adopted a favorable position for Romania regarding accession to the Schengen area, considering the fulfillment of all technical conditions, expressly mentioning that any previous minor deficiencies had been remedied, concluding that: “Romania has proven as a whole that it is sufficiently prepared to apply the provisions of the Schengen acquis”.

According to the quoted source, independent sources indicate an opportunity cost of not joining the Schengen area of over 2 billion euros for Romania annually, and the accession process is delayed by over ten years.