31/01/2011 (Agence Europe) - Schengen: EPP wants to send out a strong message. According to AFP, the EPP Group at the European Parliament has sent a letter to France and Germany asking them to send out “a strong political message” to Romania and Bulgaria, with regard to their joining the Schengen system. This message should be given in the “immediate future”. The letter is signed by the German vice president, Manfred Weber, and calls on France and Germany to ensure that the two countries obtain “the honest and explicit prospect of a swift accession” and avoid “confusion regarding the commitments they have to accomplish with regard to accession”. The MEP added that his group is “out of principle, sceptical about any hurried enlargement of the Schengen area” but also explains that it would be “very damaging to create the impression that the EU would establish new conditions and thereby amend the ongoing process”. (S.P./transl.fl)