Scholz calls for Romania to join visa-free Schengen zone by year-end

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz voiced his support for Romania joining the European Schengen area of free movement without border checks during a visit to the Romanian capital.
"Germany is firmly on Romania's side," Scholz said on Monday after a meeting with Romanian President Klaus Iohannis in Bucharest.
The aim is for the country to "finally get full membership in the Schengen area this year," Scholz asserted.
The German chancellor said Romania has fulfilled all criteria for joining and that the goal is for "Romania to finally gain full membership in the Schengen area this year."
Iohannis also expressed confidence that his country would fully join Schengen by the end of the year.
European Union member states Romania and Bulgaria were rejected for membership in Schengen in December, largely due to opposition from Austria, which claimed that too many illegal migrants enter Austria via Romania. Germany also supported membership at that time.
Both countries have already implemented some of the Schengen rules. But border controls along borders with other EU states have so far remained in effect.
New members of Schengen can only be admitted unanimously. Both Romania and Bulgaria have been seeking membership since 2011.
Before Scholz left for Bucharest, an important bilateral defence project was also announced. The armaments group Rheinmetall is setting up a maintenance and logistics centre in Romania for tanks, howitzers and military vehicles which were delivered to the Ukrainian armed forces from the west.
The service station in Satu Mare near the Romanian-Ukrainian border is scheduled to start operations in April, a company spokesman told dpa. Scholz welcomed the move. "I am very happy that so many European member states are willing to move forward with us," the chancellor added.
Scholz is scheduled to meet Moldovan President Maia Sandu together with Iohannis in the afternoon. The former Soviet republic with its 2.6 million inhabitants lies between Romania and Ukraine.
The poor country's pro-European government accuses Russia of deliberate destabilization. The US National Security Council also recently stated that Russian actors - some with connections to Russian secret services - were fuelling protests in order to start an uprising against the Moldovan government.
Scholz emphasized that the meeting with Sandu was "much more than a symbol" for him. "It's also an expression of an existing, very practical partnership" which is to be expanded now.
Although Moldova is not aiming to join NATO, it does want to join the European Union. In June, the country was given candidate status along with Ukraine.
Germany and other EU countries are supporting Moldova with large sums of money. At three donor conferences last year, well over $1 billion were raised - a lot of money in a country with an annual economic output of around $14 billion.
Moldova is politically divided between pro-European and pro-Russian groups. Russian soldiers have been stationed in the breakaway region of Transnistria, a narrow strip of land on the border with Ukraine, since the 1990s.