SCHENGEN ACCESSION. Bulgaria insists on full Schengen membership / Romanian press discusses negotiations and conditions imposed on Romania

The media agenda remains marked by the Schengen issue, but also by the multiple news about next year's draft budget. Negotiations on Schengen are visible in the media (including nuances related to the attitude towards the conditions imposed by Austria). The number of press mentions about Schengen seems to be decreasing - Romanian and Bulgarian statements, respectively, feed the news. In this context, the media presence of the ruling parties counts, but with a decreasing impact compared to previous days.

Following the analysis made on the basis of all the central news on the Schengen issue in the last 24 hours (extracted with the help of Newsbox Romania), we note that the topic of accession to the Schengen Area is in the foreground, in the context of the meeting of the Interior Ministers of Romania, Bulgaria and Austria and the focus of the discussions on the conditions imposed by Vienna.

Although the authorities in Bucharest are trying to communicate, especially through the voice of Minister Cătălin Predoiu, that on the issue of migrants things are not changing in relation to the agreements already in force, the media approaches are skeptical, both in the press with a right-wing audience (sources such as Hotnews, Digi24) and in the left-wing (such as Antena3 or RTV). For the press, it is not really clear what the Dublin agreement, which is already in force, stipulates and how it has been implemented so far.

• Examples of recent media approaches:
  • • Stiripesurse.ro and HotNews.ro reflect a critical and direct tone, emphasizing the conditions imposed by Austria and the Bulgarian and Romanian official reactions.
    • Digi24 and Adevărul take a more analytical approach, highlighting the role of the US in the talks between Austria and Romania.
    • Digi FM and Știrile Pro TV focus on the negotiating aspects and harsh reactions from Austria, with a more incisive tone.

  For the time being, especially in the online media, there is a discussion about Bulgaria's position towards the conditions imposed by Austria and the hypothesis of partial accession. Here, especially in media with a right-wing audience (the topic being more visible in such sources), the idea of weakness on the Romanian side is being indirectly induced.

  While Bulgaria has such a position - full accession, rejection of conditions - the perception that is being built also in the Romanian media is that Austria's claims are not fair, and that a process of only partial accession is unfair to the two countries - especially since accession with air borders is generally perceived as not addressing important problems (those of the carriers, for example).

  In particular, in media sources such as B1 TV, the Minister of Interior was criticized because, in the discussions with Austria, beyond the conditions of this state, the course of the institutional process was not clarified - what would be the concrete date of accession to Schengen, even if only with air borders.

  

  Google Trends Romania - reflects online searches in Romania for the last week for terms associated with the Schengen area

  If we look at searches on this topic, we see that the topic has decreased in intensity. The Google Trends data graph captures the overcoming of a slightly higher peak seen the previous few days. Moreover, in the absence of new information in the press, the public will not be searching daily on the topic. But if new decisions emerge, we are likely to see an increase in searches, public excitement and media interest. *Summarized using a monitoring feed provided by Newsbox Romania. The analysis, data and images presented have been enhanced using Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence tools.