Romania’s inclusion in the Schengen area will not influence negatively Moldova and its people, Romanian Ambassador in Chisinau Marius Lazurca told a news conference on Monday, Info-Prim Neo reports. “We make these statements in response to the study “The impact of Romania’s future entry into the Schengen area on Moldova” (made by the Analytical Center “Expert Grup” – e.n.), in which the authors tried to show that Romania’s joining of the Schengen area will have political and social effects on the Moldovans. When controls on the internal borders will be stepped up, no major changes will take place that can lead to tougher visa issuing conditions. The only possible changes are technical in nature – processing of the biometrical data of the applicants and increasing the visa tax for a limited number of applicants,” said the ambassador. Marius Lazurca also said that the political and social effects on the Moldovans mentioned by the authors of the study are groundless. “Before publishing such texts, the authors should have consulted us. They made the so-called study with the money provided by the EU. We will contact those who offered the money and inform them that they contributed to a fraud,” he stated. According to the diplomat, Romania would like to continue to provide free visas to Moldovans. “But it wouldn’t be right. In such a situation, everyone would come to the Romanian consulates to obtain gratis visas that would have a greater value. In order to balance the situation, we have to put a standard tax of €35 that is applied in all the EU member states,” said Marius Lazurca. In the end, he said that the study “The impact of Romania’s future entry into the Schengen area on Moldova” is based on substandard documents and contains evident errors and unfounded conclusions. According to the authors of the study Alex Oprunenco and Denis Cenua, after Romania enters the Schengen area, the conditions of entering Romania would be toughened up and this may lead to the redirection of the tourist flows to countries with comparable offers, but more lenient visa regimes. The possible institution of tougher conditions as regards issuing of visas to citizens of third countries will have negative effects. The Moldovan citizens may have feelings of frustration and anxiety and the anti-Romania feelings may intensify. But a part of the Moldovans living within an area of 30-50 km of the Moldovan-Romanian border may benefit from a facilitated travel regime in the Schengen area with small-scale traffic permits, regardless of the internal political changes.