French Ambassador to Bucharest: French business people told me they were demanded bribes in Romania. End of 2012 – best target for Romania's Schengen admission

The Ambassador of France to Bucharest, Henri Paul, has told in an interview with news agency Mediafax that he had the „same feeling” as the US Ambassador when French business people came to him and told him about corruption in Romania. Asked whether the business people were demanded bribes in Romania, he answered „Yes”. He said in the same interview with Mediafax that the end of 2012 was the best Romania can hope for when it comes to a moment for its accession to Schengen.

• Last month, US Ambassador to Bucharest Mark Gitenstein has said in an interview that Romania was offering opportunities as it had quality work force and for many other reasons, but that as long as there was corruption US companies would not invest in Romania.

Ambassador Henri Paul said he urged French business people to contact the police in cases where the intent of corruption emerges.

On Romania’s Schengen accession, he said that Romania can best hope for the end of 2012 and that a worst scenario would be for it to never join Schengen. He said it was not an issue that depended on France only, but on a framework of international negotiations and on other countries with different positions than France as „nuances” are different between them.