Belgium supports accelerated negotiations with Romania

The Belgian chairmanship of the European Union welcomes the new negotiation pace imposed by the Government in Bucharest to overcome all delays and appreciates the quality of the documents drafted by the European Integration Ministry, the Belgian Ambassador in Romania Xavier van Migem said on Wednesday.

As for dropping the visas for Romanians wanting to travel to the Schengen space, the Belgian Ambassador mentioned that Romania had vowed to secure borders, to fight illegal immigration and accepted to repatriate Romanians expelled from other countries.

He added that the report drafted by the European Commissioner for Enlargement Gunther Verheugen and the EU commissioner for internal affairs Antonio Vittorino, proposed dropping visas for Romanian citizens as of January 2002.

The report will be debated by the Council of Justice and Internal Affairs Ministers during one of the reunions in September, October or December 2001, provided that Romania keeps its commitments, van Migem said.

He also explained that EU’s Belgian chairmanship agreed to Romania accelerating the accession negotiation process and would support opening as many chapters as possible, considering that Integration minister Hildegard Puwak had recently announced Romania was planning to open another 11 chapters by the end of the year. Mediafax