Gödöllõ, 20/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Romania and Bulgaria have made “considerable” progress in adapting to the Schengen system, but still not enough to be able to join the area at the end of March 2011. The German minister for the interior, Thomas de Maizière, related this message to his colleagues on Thursday 20 January, at the informal meeting of the European justice and home affairs ministers in Gödöllõ (Hungary).
Stressing that France (which was not represented by a minister at the meeting) shared his country's views, de Maizière confirmed that both countries were opposed to “early” entry. Because, although Romania and Bulgaria have made genuine progress at a technical level, de Maizières explained, “access to Schengen is not just a technical matter, it is also a political one”, said the minister, thereby officially adding to the technical criteria of the dossier (bringing both countries into line with the seven Schengen domains) the political criteria of fighting corruption and judicial reform, which come under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) set in place by the Commission.
This condition - and the additional requirements * has been challenged from the very start by Romania, which laments the fact that the game rules being changed in this way, as the member states were initially supposed to take position on the technical aspects of the dossier alone. And in that area, Romania has so far pretty much passed the test, in this case since the two countries joined the Schengen Information System (SIS) in November 2010. Bulgaria, on the other hand, is still struggling on the management of its borders and, as one source explains, the management of the border between Romania and Bulgaria has not been properly assessed, which makes it impossible to allow Romania into Schengen without Bulgaria.
The fact remains that de Maizière's announcement appears to have sounded the death knell to Romania and Bulgaria's plans to join the Schengen area soon, as the German minister implicitly confirmed that France and Germany would play their veto, in a dossier which requires the unanimous positive vote of all the countries of the Schengen zone.
In Gödöllõ on Thursday the Romanian home affairs minister, Traian-Constantin Igas, has already taken on board the principal, stating that his country was “entirely ready to join” Schengen, but “we must be realistic and it is clear that we must listen to what the other countries are telling us”. The Romanian minister also said that it was impossible for his country to join Schengen without Bulgaria on the technical criteria alone, “as our two countries are partners”, he said.
The Hungarian Presidency also started to backtrack on Thursday, whilst pledging that it would seek to develop a decision which was both technical and political by the end of June, but also fully understanding “the political requirements of France and Germany”, according to a spokesperson. What the German minister said “is entirely acceptable to us; we do not criticise him, because it is up to the member states to decide”. As for the definition of a new timetable for the two countries to join Schengen, the Presidency says that “it is still too early” to debate this. “We will see what is said over the next few weeks”, particularly at the next meeting of the “Schengen” working group of the Council on 28 January, which will meet to assess the technical aspects of the dossier. (S.P./transl.fl)