Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Monday that he presented the European Commission with clear conditions to be implemented before Vienna agrees to the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen Area by lifting air borders.

In a televised interview, Karner emphasized that progress is needed in the field of protection of the EU's external borders, in the sense of tripling the number of police officers.

Also, the Commission must allocate funds for the protection infrastructure of the Bulgarian-Turkish and Romanian-Serbian borders. In addition, the Austrian minister requests strengthened controls at the land borders, as well as the taking over by Romania and Bulgaria of asylum seekers, especially Afghans and Syrians.

The request regarding the maintenance of border controls was motivated by the fact that, out of more than 50 thousand asylum seekers in Austria, only about 150 migrants came through the airports.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu is of the opinion that some of Austria's requests to accept Romania in the Schengen Area with airports are not exaggerated. He argues that the emphasis must be placed on strengthening the borders through an integrated system based on digitization.

Marcel Ciolacu recalled that currently, at a border crossing point there are four digitization systems that work separately.

The head of government added that there is a €1.2 billion program from the European Commission for the border with Ukraine and a pilot border point with Serbia, which he said is working very well.

Translated by Radu Matei

SOURCE: Radio România Actualități