Minister of the Interior Päivi Räsänen met Romanian Minister of Internal Affairs Radu Stroe

Finnish Minister of the Interior Ms Päivi Räsänen today met Romanian Minister of Internal Affairs Mr Radu Stroe in Bucharest. The two Ministers discussed Romania's readiness to join the Schengen area.

Ms Räsänen extended her congratulations to Romania, as recent information by the European Commission shows that the country has made good progress in implementing the Commission's recommendations under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). Established by the EU, the CVM is a mechanism intended to help Bulgaria and Romania in judicial reform and the fight against corruption and organised crime.

- I hope that Romania implements the remaining CVM recommendations, and I encourage the country to continue the work to this effect, said Ms Räsänen.

Romania's accession to the Schengen area requires that it makes progress in fulfilling the CVM recommendations.

Ms Räsänen commended Romania for the work it has done towards achieving Schengen accession. - Romania has maintained a very positive attitude and taken determined efforts to solve the problems associated with this challenging issue, Ms Räsänen said in her discussion with Mr Stroe.

She also thanked Romania for smooth cooperation. - Cooperation between our two countries has been good, and we have engaged in an open dialogue throughout the process.

Finland has participated in assessing Romania's border control systems in view of Schengen accession. - We are very pleased with the technical level of border control that Romania has achieved. At the same time, I would also like to emphasise that Romania's accession to the Schengen area must be assessed as a whole.

Ms Räsänen also thanked Romania for the police liaison officer it is going to send to Finland at the start of 2014. - Our previous experience with liaison officers has been positive, and I consider it an important form of cooperation between our two countries.

Ms Räsänen will continue her trip from Romania to Moldova to meet the Moldovan Minister of Internal Affairs, Mr Dorin Recean, on 3 December.

For further information, please contact: Ms Laura Yli-Vakkuri, Director General, tel. + 358 40 720 2216