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Austria-Romania relations

Austria	Romania

The diplomatic relations between the Republic of Austria and Romania were largely determined and limited by the global political environment. Generally good cooperation has always been in the interest of Romanian and Austrian foreign policy. However, due to Austria’s Schengen denial for Romania, Romania’s massive boycott targeting Austrian companies and citizens, frauds made by Raiffaisen Bank and OMV, and Romanian discrimination in Austria, the two countries really started to dislike each other.^{[ citation needed]} Romania has an embassy in Vienna. The permanent mission of Romania is near the international organizations of Vienna. Romania has the Romanian Cultural Institute in Vienna. Austria has an embassy in Bucharest. Austria has in Bucharest the Austrian cultural forum. Both countries are full members of Council of Europe and of the European Union.

History

During World War II, Romanian prisoners of war were among Allied POWs held in the Stalag XVII-A, Stalag XVII-B and Stalag 398 German POW camps in German-annexed Austria. ^[1]

Austria has given full support to Romania's membership of the European Union.^{[ citation needed]}

Relation Collapse (2015-present)

Romania’s Schengen Denial

Although Austria and Romania enjoyed good bilateral relations historically, with Austria being the first country to have diplomatic relations with Romania after they have become an independent state in 1878, their relations strained significantly in 2022.

As of 2022, five members of the European Union were still not part of the Schengen Area, an organization directly under European Union's jurisdiction. Those members were Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania. Ireland maintained an opt-out, while the others were (and still are) in the process of accession. The main problems were border issues for Cyprus and corruption for Bulgaria and Romania.

Bulgaria and Romania became European Union member states in 2007, and their first attempt to join the Schengen Area came in 2011 when six countries vetoed their accession over the same problems. Over time, both countries solved parts of the issues regarding this, and most of the countries vetoing their accession in 2011 gave their agreement for allowing them to finally be a part of the Schengen Area. Croatia, however, joined the European Union six years later than Bulgaria and Romania, in 2013.

After fulfilling any issue regarding to corruption and internal problems, Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were granted a vote for their accession in the Schengen Area on December 8, 2022, with the effect to have been acceding the Schengen Area on January 1, 2023. However, Austria and the Netherlands kept protesting over Bulgaria and Romania's accession, calling for another reforms to be fulfilled in order for the countries to be granted in the Area. Therefore, on the day of voting, Romania saw opposition from Austria, while Bulgaria saw opposition from both Austria and the Netherlands. While Croatia was granted (and officially joined the Schengen Area on January 1), Bulgaria and Romania were not, and, as of October 2023, are still not part of the Schengen Area. ^[2]

Romania’s Boycott on Austria

In Romania, the Austrian veto caused outrage. The Romanian government announced that relations between the two nations were going to be significantly reduced. The ambassador in Vienna was withdrawn, the government issued an advertisement over Romanian citizens going to Austria for skiing, museums and universities began boycotting any sort of cooperation with Austrian companies, and Austrian companies saw a wave of protests at their branches in Romania (on a branch of Raiffeisen bank in Cluj-Napoca, a grafitti saying "NAZI BANK" was discovered the very next day after the voting). ^{[3] [4]}

Austria’s Timber Theft in Romania

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Austria was most of the time condemned by Romania as being the biggest timber exporter of wood, legally and also illegal. In 2017-2018, Austria’s timber giant Schweighofer was condemned for illegally timber cutting and corruption on Romanian territory, by the Romanian by the Minister of Environment and the Romanian government. An investigation was launched but since Romania was the only country to report their actions, the case was closed.

Austrian Armed citizen arrest

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In January 2023, there has been a case of an armed Austrian citizen, who was condemned to 3 years in prison after he shot 5 stray dogs in a train station. When a woman tried to intervene at stopping the man, he threatened of doing the same to her. The woman called 112 and the man was arrested. An investigation was launched for the shootout, the man saying that he shot the dogs after they attacked his dog but that didn’t help him in any way. It’s illegal to detain an armed weapon in public containing lethal ammunition and animal laws are very strict. The man was charged for illegal possession of a firearm, animal cruelty and threatening. The relationship between Romania and Austria got worse when Austria demanded Romania to extradite him back to Austria, but the Romanian government refused and imprisoned him on Romanian soil.

Romanian Discrimination In Austria

Romanian minority used to be, since the Habsburg Empire and Austria-Hungary, discriminated by the rule of the empires. After Romania joined the European Union in 2007, a lot of Romanians migrated to Austria, now making the second biggest minority group in Austria, after Germans.^{[ citation needed]}

While the majority of Romanians in Austria have integrated well, some cases of begging, robberies, pickpocketing and vandalism have been reported by the locals.^{[ citation needed]} As a result, the Austrian government has taken countermeasures which have been deemed unethical and discriminatory: unequal payments, education discrimination, refusal to pay allowances to the Romanian children settled in Austria. ^{[ citation needed]} Romania has seen this as a huge problem and it even resulted in the EU’s intervention of condemning Austria for Human Rights violations.^{[ citation needed]}

Furthermore, European sources such as Eurostats, EUACTIVE, Gladiator (before Brexit) have gathered stories from Slovak and Romanian workers, who were discriminated by the Austrian government and companies, by abuse or getting paid less than the average Austrian citizen. According to EUACTIVE:

Thousands of women migrant care workers in Austria, mostly from Slovakia and Romania, work excessively long hours with "shockingly" poor salaries and are often subject to various forms of discrimination and abuse. Migrant workers are paid approximately 25% less than their national counterparts, which means they get paid around €10,080 per year on average, while the yearly minimum wage in Austria is currently €17,484.

This has led Romania and Slovakia to further condemn the government of Austria.

• 
  Embassy of Austria in Bucharest
• 
  Embassy of Romania in Vienna

See also

• Foreign relations of Austria
• Foreign relations of Romania
• Transylvanian Saxons
• Romanians in Austria

References

External links

• Ambasada Austriei in Bucharest
• Ambasada României in Vienna Archived 2013-01-31 at the Wayback Machine