Official Bode: If there is an agreement with Austria, they won't be able to take whomever they please

Minister of Transport Lucian Bode on Friday stated in Timisoara that there has been no such official request from an Austrian official related to a train that was supposed to leave from the Timisoara Railway Station on May 2 to transport workforce from Romania to Austria, to take care of the elderly in this country. Lucian Bode underscored that this was only "the statement of a politician" from Austria and that, if a governmental agreement was to be reached after all, "no one would be able to come to Romania and collect whomever they want from the station to take them wherever they want." "I saw this public statement by an Austrian official. However, the Ministry of Transport hasn't received any such official request from the Austrian authorities related to a train that was supposed to leave from Timisoara on May 2. We have asked for the necessary procedures to be initiated and we have sent official notifications to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy, to the Ministry of Interior as well, to tell us whether they received such request or not. Because we did not receive it," said Lucian Bode. The Minister of Transport also added that "suitable" will be any such approach that observes the military ordinances in force in Romania and warned that Romania is still under a state of emergency "at least until May 15." "During this time we have as a first obligation to implement everything that the military ordinances provide in what concerns the protection of the population by observing the sanitary measures, while we also think of a way to maintain all the economic sectors alive. (...) So if we are to reach a government agreement [with Austria - editor's note], you should know that no one will be able to just come to Romania by train and collect whomever they want from here to take them wherever they want. If such a train becomes the object of an agreement, then this activity will be carried out according to the regulations imposed by the Romanian state. However, we haven't received such official request in this respect until now, there is only this statement from an Austrian official, which we treated as such, as just a statement. There is nothing concrete from our perspective," Bode said. The official visited the new military field hospital in Timisoara built by the Ministry of National Defence in collaboration with the Ministry of Transport. "I never thought that I will be able to see such mobilization. Within three days, 130 troops erected the hospital. Probably tomorrow-the day after tomorrow it will become operational, with 56 beds, ICU beds. This complex was made in partnership with the Ministry of Transport, through CFR S.A. [National Railway Company - editor's note]. On Monday they called us to give them our approval and we said that we are now at war and while at war we don't think where we will train in two months from now, we just think how to save lives," said the Minister. AGERPRES (RO - author: Otilia Halunga, editor: Marius Fratila; EN - author: Cristina Zaharia, editor: Adina Panaitescu)