Austria maintaining its veto to prevent Romania from joining the Schengen border-free zone is impacting Romanian leaders, who are now looking for alternative solutions “other than the diplomatic way” while Euroscepticism in the country continues to grow, according to Euractiv.
Austria is blocking Romania’s entry into the EU’s border-free zone over fears of an increase in irregular migration, sparking deep frustration among the country’s population and politicians.
After threatening to take Austria to the EU Court of Justice for failure to lift its Schengen veto, Romania took another step and is blocking the attendance of Austrian officials to NATO meetings ‘to send a signal,’ vice-president of the party in coalition government PNL (EPP) Rareș Bogdan told Digi24.
If Austria’s position cannot be changed by the “signals” sent by Romania, the EU institutions and the rest of the EU countries, Romania is ready to “find solutions other than the diplomatic way”, said Bogdan, who also threatened to use “economic diplomacy” in retaliation.
‘When you have a country that has no less than 7% of its GDP from businesses present in Romania, they must not be blocked, they must be partnered’, he said.
The Eurosceptic far-right party AUR, the second biggest party in terms of voting intention at 21%, also called on the government to ‘retaliate firmly’ on Tuesday.
Measures could include the boycott of Austrian companies, transferring public bank accounts from Austrian banks to Romania, curtailing loans from Austrian banks and shifting fuel purchases to other countries, AUR MP Lilian Scripnic proposed.
The Romanian socialists (PSD/S&D) in coalition government with PNL, did not reply by the time of publication.