Questor-in-chief Marian Tutilescu: The vast majority of the member states are favourable to our accession to Schengen

Questor-in-chief Marian-Grigore Tutilescu - Secretary of State, Head of the Schengen Department

How many Schengen evaluation missions have taken place in Romania so far and what were their conclusions?

Once integrated into the European Union, Romania focused on attaining another strategic objective: the accession to the Schengen area. For reaching this goal, our country is undergoing an intense evaluation process, in order to prove that it meets all the criteria required by the Schengen status and that it is able to offer security and safety to the approximately 500 million citizens of the European Union.

So far, Romania has successfully accomplished all the phases of the Schengen evaluation. During 2009 and 2010, six out of the seven Schengen evaluation missions were organised and, after every mission, Romania received a positive feedback from the member states, due to significant progress that it has made in reaching this goal. The only report requiring the re-evaluation of our country is the one in the area of air borders.

At the same time, the conclusions of the reports confirm the fact that Romania is mainly prepared to access the Schengen area.

Which are the evaluations domains, which is the stage of our preparedness and which are the areas where Romania faces problems?

The evaluation domains are as following: police co-operation, protection of personal data, visas, sea borders, air borders, land borders and the Schengen Information System/SIRENE, for the last one the evaluation mission being scheduled for the period 6-10 December 2010.

As I have already mentioned, during 15 - 18 November 2010, the re-evaluation of Romania in the field of airport infrastructure is scheduled to take place at the two airports evaluated: the Bucharest Henri Coanda and Traian Vuia Timisoara.

For this purpose, we built up ab initio two terminals for the future non-Schengen flights, making available for the European citizens, starting with March 2011, a modern infrastructure which meets all the standards in the domain.

For the last evaluation mission, on the Schengen Information System, according to one of the compensatory measures provided by the Schengen acquis, we built a common information system, a system existing at the level of each and every member state, that offers the police forces the possibility to utilize an effective instrument in fighting criminal phenomena, allowing a prompt information exchange between the law enforcement authorities of the member states.

The Ministry of Administration and Interior is the coordinating institution of the Romania’s Schengen accession process. Considering that, how have you cooperated with the other institutions?

The efforts made in order to access to the Schengen area were coordinated and closely watched by the Ministry of Administration and Interior through the Schengen Department. Yet, considering all these evaluation domains, MAI was not the only ministry involved in the activity of accomplishing the objectives required by the Romania’s Schengen accession process.

Other institutions also involved in this process are the following ones: the Ministry of transportation and Infrastructure, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Public Finances through the Customs’ National Authority, the Special Communication System, the National Authority for Supervising the Personal Dataa Processing.

The issues related to the accession to the Schengen area are constantly analysed in an institutional framework within the National Commission for Schengen Self-Evaluation, an inter-ministerial organism presided by the minister of administration and interior.

On the 16th of September 2010 the National SIRENE Bureau was launched within the International Police Cooperation Centre (CCPI). How important is this unit for the international police cooperation developed between the Schengen member states?

The Schengen family means not only free movement without border control, but also the necessity to assume and apply some clear and strict regulations.

The internal security of the member states will not be endangered by the free movement of those willing to “capitalize on” this liberty. And I would consider a simple reason: at the moment of the abolition of the internal border control, the member states will apply a system of compensatory measures regarding more aspects, such as the persons’ movement (visas’ regime, consular cooperation), police cooperation and, last but not least, the judiciary cooperation of the Schengen member states.

The most significant compensatory measure is represented by the common European system of information - the Schengen Information System – which includes data on persons and goods, used by the law enforcement authorities for operational purposes, facilitating a prompt information exchange.

The SIRENE Bureau plays a very important part in this system, being the interface of the Schengen Information System, a contact point through which supplementary information on the system data is exchanged.

The SIRENE Bureau Romania recently launched was built exclusively out of European funds. It is a modern bureau already involved in various projects developed at European level and within some working groups organised in Brussels.

Do you think the Romanians are appropriately informed on the advantages implied by the Schengen accession?

The Ministry of Administration and Interior is permanently concerned about getting the citizens informed of the significance and consequences of Romanian’s accession to the Schengen area. And I’m talking about both the Romanians and the international public. To this end, together with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs we are developing the public awareness campaign called “Schengen. Travel freely taking full responsibility!”

This pubic awareness campaign aims at raising the level of public knowledge on the Romania’s Schenegen accession process by covering the progress achieved, the actions takes and the measures to be accomplished, as well as the advantages and the changes implied by the status of a Schengen member state, the public communication on the Romanian government’s measures meant to prevent and counter the crimes committed by Romanian citizens.

The campaign is unfolding on two channels: the internal and the external one. At national level, we aim to get the citizens informed regarding the significance and consequences of joining a border-free area on the one hand, and regarding the rights and obligations implied by the new status of Romania starting with March 2011, on the other hand.

At international level, we have already organised a number of event in Romania and abroad in order to raise awareness of the member states, European institutions and large public regarding the efforts made and the actions taken by the Romanian authorities in order to join Schengen. Journalists from important European mass-media have come to Romania to visit various locations on the outer border of European Union and I have to underline that the feed-back we received was a positive one.

We are committed to go on this kind of activities as we want to answer the European public’s interest regarding this process. At the same time, by developing these actions we want to provide appropriate and direct information for all the European citizens interested in this issue.

Some of the EU member states have already expressed their support for Romania in its Schengen accession process. Do you appreciate that Romania will face problems from some other states?

The member states already expressed their satisfaction regarding the way Romania implemented the recommendations of the evaluation teams and we get a positive feed-back at the end of every evaluation visit. And that is because the progress we have achieved so far in this area, and because we are so rigorous in accomplishing our tasks.

We have partnerships concluded on various domains of the Schengen acquis with many member states which are permanently supporting us in reaching this goal of joining the Schengen area at the scheduled time. The signs received from them and the discussions held I can assure you that the vast majority of the member states are favourable to our accession to Schengen.

Of course, we have to finalize all the technical evaluations so that the member states could declare their positions; and I strongly believe that we won’t face any problems in this regard and that we shall conclude this technical stage successfully.

At the same time, we permanently keep in touch with states which either haven’t decided their positions, or are at the moment rather reluctant to Romania’s accession to Schengen, for effectively tackle this problem.

Which are, from the MAI point of view, the most urgent tasks that we have to accomplish for keeping the evaluation calendar?

Our priority for the period to come is the concluding of the last evaluation visits, the re-evaluation on the air borders and the SIS evaluation.

As regards the evaluation visit in the area of the air borders, from our point of view the situation, in the field, is a very good one, and the serious rehabilitation of the locations re-evaluated is a sign that the re-evaluation visit will have positive results. All the Schengen criteria regarding the separation of flows and the border functionalities (areas of the Border Police, control facilities, endowment) are met at the highest functional standards.

As for the evaluation visit on SIS during 6-10 December 2010, the preparations are all ongoing. They imply harmonised efforts at the legislative/ procedural/ technical levels, as well as at the level of the personnel’s training.

According to the calendar passed in Brussels, Romania has already connected to the Schengen Information System since the 5th of November 2010.

The agenda of the Schengen evaluation visit on SIS/SIRENE aims at evaluating the MAI relevant units, as follows: National SIS Centre, SIRENE Bureau, Police Station no.1 in Bucharest, Henri Coanda International Airport - Bucharest, the Police Inspectorate of the Arges County, the Police Inspectorate of the Iasi County, Border Crossing Point Sculeni, as well as some other possible unexpected visits.

Petre Craciun, Optimal Media