Brussels, 14/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Romania and Bulgaria's entry into Schengen was discussed on Friday 14 January within the Council's “Schengen” working group, comprised of experts and representatives of the 27 member states. The group began its assessment of the reports by European experts (an exercise quite separate from Commission assessments as part of the cooperation and verification mechanism, CVM), with discussion mainly covering preparation by the two countries to join the Schengen Information System (SIS), and border control. Discussions were mainly technical, with “no decisions taken, and no reports adopted”, one source said. They will continue on a formal basis on 28 January during a new Council working group and most probably during the informal Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA) in Budapest on 19 January.
According to some sources, discussion revealed problems with Bulgaria pertaining to its borders, in line with what had been indicated on 7 January by diplomats cited by AFP. However, no particular difficulty was observed for the two countries when it comes to SIS. The two countries' plan to join the Schengen Area at the end of March 2011 is nonetheless in bad shape since France and Germany stated their opposition to the timetable. The Netherlands is not enthusiastic either and about a dozen countries are also unofficially of the same opinion. Unanimity is required on this issue. It is up to the Hungarian Presidency to fix the agenda of the next JHA Councils and it could decide to maintain political discussion among ministers on this dossier during the session on 24-25 February, given that the chances of Romania and Bulgaria entering the Schengen Area in the near future are slight. (S.P./transl.jl)