| CRIMINAL ACTIVITY AND THE SCHENGEN BORDERS 05/03/2010 |
| (2010-03-05) |
| Last updated: 2010-03-08 17:47 EET |
 Minister Blaga has also noted that Romania benefits from one of Europe’s most high-performance maritime surveillance systems. Romania has set for itself the target of entering the Schengen area by March 2011, while meeting the commitments made to fulfill this objective is a priority for any government coalition in Bucharest. Prime Minister Emil Boc has more:
“Romania’ s key political objective right now is to gain access to the Schengen Area. It is not only the Romanian citizens’ freedom of movement that will be important, but also the fact that we will provide security for the European Union’s 500 million citizens.”
Since 2007 the country has been a frontier of the European Union, and for this reason the country has been working hard on border security. It has entailed considerable financial effort - around 440 million Euros were spent in implementing the Border’s Integrated Security System. Once Romania gains Schengen accession, the pressure on the borders is bound to become more intense, the authorities say. Accordingly, Romania needs to be prepared to tackle cross-border crime, both along the border, as well as within the national territory. Valentin Fatuloiu, a State Secretary with the Romanian Administration and Interior Ministry was very specific about the threats Romania will have to cope with:
“We very well know what these threats are, along the Schengen area’s prospective external border, in terms of the criminal activity. We are at a crossroads in terms of the Balkan drugs route, we lie along migration routes, we are in an area where the threats posed by neighboring countries in terms of criminal activity are certain. So right now we’re trying to provide the required leverage to ward off or mitigate such threats, both as an institution, and in terms of legislation.”
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2025-04-03
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