The President changes Romania’s strategy in the Schengen file, one newspaper reads on Thursday. In the same vein, Head of the Representation of EC in Romania chief Nicolae Idu talks about the progress Romania undertook since it became a EU member. Last but not least, the number of Romanians who spent New Year’s Eve in the country dropped by 18% and money spent by 40%.

President Basescu changes Romania’s strategy in the Schengen file, Evenimentul Zilei reads. The President urged the government not to unilaterally denounce the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism in justice and not to block Croatia’s joining the EU.

His statements contradicted the statements made by Romania’s Foreign Affairs minister Teodor Baconschi who previously declared in an interview for daily Adevarul that Romania should oppose Croatia’s joining the EU since Germany and France oppose Romania.

However, yesterday, Baconschi declared for Agerpres that Romania supports Croatia to join the EU and added that the speculations in the media had no basis in his declarations for Adevarul. The President nonetheless, revealed that Romania wishes to continue its political struggle to join Schengen in March.

He said that Romania could chose not to spend 271 million euro to secure borders for EADS – a company in which Germany and France have great stakes – if authorities are not sure when the country will join Schengen. Instead, Basescu proposed to re-direct the money to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to stimulate the economy.

In the same vein, Romania libera interviews Nicolae Idu, head of the Representation of European Commission in Romania on the progress registered by Romania since it joined the EU. For Idu, the most important success is that Romania joined the EU in the first place.

In the interview, Idu says that in the first t