Romania's Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Monday evening that as long as he is Romania's prime minister he will not accept Romanians continuing to be "humiliated" by Chancellor of Austria Karl Nehammer's opposing Romania's joining the Schengen area, adding that the latter's position is unacceptable.

Ciolacu said that if in December Austria again uses its right of veto Romania, he will appeal to the European Court of Justice and will ask the European Council, the European Commission, the European Parliament to join in this process.

"First of all, what Austria does not understand, or I think it understands very well - and you saw that the Austrian people understand better than the politicians at the moment. What Chancellor Nehammer is doing is unacceptable. First of all, me too, as prime minister, and he are transient. You have the right to veto. The European Commission, the European Council, the European Parliament have made a recommendation that Romania has deserved this for 10 years, it is meeting absolutely all the technical requirements. You have the right to veto, but you have to you justify it. That's why I said: as long as I'm Romania's prime minister, I won't accept the chancellour being a hypocrite and continuing to humiliate Romanians and Romania," Ciolacu told CNN Antena 3 private broadcaster when asked to confirm that Romania would block Austria's participation in NATO meetings, as two Austrian officers have been waiting for months to be accredited to NATO but their access is delayed by Romania, which asked for time to think.

"While Romania respects all the sanctions against Russia, all of them without exception, while Romania helps the Republic of Moldova stop being dependent on Russia - and at this moment I can tell you for several weeks that the Republic of Moldova has been independent from Russian gas - you, Austria, are a neutral country, don't spend a single euro on defence acquisitions. Romania increases its GDP allocation from 2% to 2.5% to deter Russia from what it wants to do. And you come up as a hypocrite and say that Romania has no right in Schengen, without justifying your veto at all," added Ciolacu.

The prime minister also said that Austria has continued to buy oil and gas from Russia for almost 7 billion euros since the war started.

"From my point of view, it is money that Putin uses in the Russian economy to further support the war in Ukraine, dirty cash. But you come up - although everyone proves that there is no migration through the territory, 2% - 3% pass through Romania - but you come up and say: 'Sir, I am against' (...) Romania loses at least 2% of its GDP by not joining the Schengen area," said the prime minister.

He added that Romania will not impose economic sanctions on Austria, but respects the sanctions imposed on Russia. AGERPRES (RO - author: Alina Novaceanu, editor: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - author: Corneliu-Aurelian Colceriu, editor: Cristina Zaharia)