Brussels, 13/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - Bulgaria and Romania should not be kept hostage to populism and the Council should come to a swift decision on the two countries' accession to the Schengen area of free movement. This is the message sent out in the morning of Thursday 13 October by MEPs to Schengen member countries that are refusing to give Bucharest and Sophia guarantees on their accession demands of 22 September.
Several political groups at the EP were very much opposed to this decision and submitted a non-binding resolution, which called on the Council to “immediately” give its support to this enlargement and criticised it for it failing to keep its promises.
Last June in Luxembourg, ministers for home affairs recognised that the two countries had fulfilled all the technical criteria to join the Schengen area and agreed to the idea of making a decision in September during another ministerial meeting. This decision was based on the possible accession over two different phases: at the end of October, then in 2012. Nonetheless, this decision was not taken due to misgivings publicly expressed by the Netherlands and Finland, which underlined the doubts they had regarding corruption and effective control of external borders.
In their resolution, MEPs called on the Council to stick to the rules set out for Schengen accession, namely the technical criteria and to make a decision exclusively on this basis.
For the second time in just a few months, with the EP already having made a decision last June, MEPs considered that the two candidate countries were ready to join the Schengen area and that they had proved this by their behaviour ,showing that they were “reliable partners”. MEPs also called on the EU27 not to change the accession rules, while taking advantage of the current reform of the Schengen rules and the evaluation mechanism.
On Wednesday evening during a debate, this change of the rules of the game was harshly criticised by several MEPs, including Renate Weber (ALDE, Romania). Other MEPs expressed their “surprise” and “disappointment”, as did Simon Busuttil (EPP, Malta) who said that the postponement of this accession was not justified. Commissioner Cecilia Malmström reaffirmed the Commission's support for their candidacy and called on member states to give their decisions as soon as possible. The Polish Presidency, which considers this matter as one of its priority dossiers, also promised to attempt to find a compromise as soon as possible.
On Wednesday, the Romanian and Bulgarian prime ministers, Boc and Borissov, also called on the European Council, in a joint declaration, to find a solution to their countries joining the Schengen area as soon as possible. They expressed a wish that this issue be treated at the summit on 23-27 October next. One source, however, indicated that nothing was sure yet and the question was still not formally on the agenda.
In the meantime, this joint request by the two prime ministers, like the resolution from the European Parliament, may not have any of the intended impact on the countries expressing the most misgivings about Bulgaria and Romania joining the Schengen area. The same source explained that “the Netherlands and Finland said no” and the EP “already gave its opinion in June”. This source therefore considers that this new resolution has little chance of getting the Netherlands and Finland to revise their positions. (SP/transl.fl)