IntMin Dan on Salzburg Forum meetings on illegal migration, Schengen bid and police cooperation

Speaking on Friday after the Salzburg Forum Ministerial Conference, Minister of the Interior Carmen Dan said that talks envisaged the member states' experience in combating illegal migration and Romania's accession to the Schengen Area.

"As far as border security is concerned, it was important to share with our colleagues, with the other representatives of the international bodies and institutions the experiences each of us, the nine Forum member states, our partners and today's guests - specifically the Republic of Moldova - have had with the combat of illegal migration. And I am saying this because we had hands-on discussions about specific situations and how the states confronted with this phenomenon understand to combat it," said Carmen Dan.

"We discussed Romania's Schengen bid. You know very well that we were fulfilling the technical requirements as early as 2011 and this was a good opportunity to discuss our steadfastly maintaining this goal during the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union," said Carmen Dan.

The Minister mentioned that as far as police cooperation is concerned, all the guests to the Forum welcomed and showed interest in Romania's proposal regarding the operational exchange of officers among the states, just as Romania already has operational support officers in states with a strong Romanian community: France, Spain, Italy, the UK.

Minister Dan added that considering several recent unfortunate events, she and her Hungarian counterpart discussed road safety.

"Together we decided to have Hungarian and Romanian police conduct joint patrol activities in the area adjacent to the border checkpoints with Hungary. We have this practice in place with Bulgarian partners too," said Carmen Dan.

She also mentioned the discussion she had at the Forum with Europol Executive Director Catherine De Bolle about Romania's intention to submit its candidacy for a seat on the Forum Board.

"We have 74 experts at Europol and we took this opportunity to announce her that we plan and prepare for a candidacy for the Europol Board. [Ms. De Bolle] welcomed this idea and mentioned the very good cooperation with our officers and that she greatly appreciates their work within Europol," said Carmen Dan.