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00:00After air and sea, Bulgarians and Romanians finally get to enter the Schengen area from land as Austria lits its veto.
00:10Germany's defense minister Boris Pistorius decision not to run as candidate in February snap election clears the way for Olaf Scholz to run for a second term.
00:21Romania is preparing for a marathon of elections starting the end of this week.
00:31Austria lifts its veto allowing Romania and Bulgaria to join the European Schengen free movement area.
00:41The agreement was signed in Budapest between the three countries and will be formalized at the next Home Affairs Council in Brussels in December.
00:51European Commissioner for Home Affairs Jilva Johansson explained from Hungary.
00:57This is a great day to achieve the full freedom for all the citizens of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area and I'm very happy today.
01:09Johansson expects it to be operational by January 2025.
01:14The European Commission recommended back in 2011 that both Romania and Bulgaria should be allowed access to Schengen.
01:21But final decision depended on the EU countries that vetoed their entry for years.
01:27Free movement by air and sea was finally allowed a year ago and came into force last March.
01:34Austria, however, continued to block land movement.
01:39And in a few weeks free movement for Romanians and Bulgarians will finally become a reality.
01:51German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is to be nominated as candidate for Chancellor by his SPD party executive next Monday.
01:59It comes after Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he was not available to run as a candidate for Chancellor in February's snap election.
02:07Pistorius said in a social media post on Thursday that he would instead support incumbent Scholz' re-election bid.
02:15After days of speculation about the Chancellor bid by the SPD, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has finally made it clear.
02:23He will not run as a candidate for Chancellor in favour of Olaf Scholz.
02:27This ends this debate.
02:29But 80% believe that Boris Pistorius would deliver better election results for the SPD in the Bundestag election.
02:37The survey results for Olaf Scholz have been in the basement for weeks.
02:40Let's find out how he would like to turn this around in the rather short election.
02:46Diana Reznik from Berlin for Euronews.
03:11And in between, on December the 1st, the parliamentary elections will take place.
03:17In the first round of the presidential elections, no less than 14 candidates will compete.
03:23Of all of them, according to the polls, 5 have real chances to enter the second round, which will take place on December the 8th.
03:31The frontrunner for the presidential elections in all the polls is Marcel Ciolacu, Prime Minister and the Chief of the Social Democratic Party.
03:38In the second place is George Simeon, Leader of the Sovereign and Nationalist Party AUR.
03:45The third place is disputed, according to different polls, between the candidate of the opposition party, Elena Lasconi, and the liberal Nicolae Ciucă.
03:54Romanian voters are most concerned about the high living costs, the rising inflation and the low salaries.
04:01It's quite hard to have a favourite when you don't really have a choice.
04:04I don't know who to vote for and I will see.
04:08I haven't decided, I don't have a favourite, I don't think I can have a favourite, no one attracted me.
04:14The debates would have mattered, but I can't say that I could draw a conclusion from what I've seen on TV so far.
04:20And, in general, it's to be the worst, the smallest.
04:24Because at the moment I don't think it's someone completely apt to run for office.
04:28For me, honesty matters the most, but also the background.
04:31The presidential and parliamentary elections could either keep Romania on its pro-European path or steer it towards a more nationalist stance.