GENEVA 

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen and Romania's President Klaus Johannis expressed optimism about reaching a solution to the dispute over Romania's Schengen admission. 

A spokesman for Van der Bellen told public broadcaster ORF that both presidents met during the summit of the Three Seas Initiative in Bucharest on Wednesday and “expressed their hope that the issues currently standing in the way of accession can soon be resolved positively, to the benefit of both countries.”

The spokesman added that the Austrian president "has always taken the clear position that European integration has been and will continue to be enormously important for the export-oriented Austrian economy."

Many domestic companies are "very successful and highly respected" in Romania, the spokesman said.

Johannis, for his part, wrote on X that he appreciated Van der Bellen's "continued commitment to a solution that would allow Romania to join the Schengen area as soon as possible."

Austria had vetoed the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the border control-free Schengen area in December last year. The reason given was the high number of asylum applications in Austria.

There had been more than 100,000 illegal border crossings into Austria in 2022, 75,000 of which had not been registered, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner had said at the time, adding: "It is wrong that a system that does not work in many places is also enlarged at this point."

Johannis had called Austria's decision "deeply unjust."