Brussels, 24/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Sunday 23 October, Bulgaria and Romania received some positive news from the Polish Presidency and the president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, regarding their forthcoming accession to the Schengen zone, Bulgarian diplomatic sources revealed on Monday 24 October.
Far from being the priority issue of the summit, the question of the enlargement of the free-movement area was discussed on the sidelines of the meeting of the EU27, as the objective of reaching a decision has been set for the European summit of December “at the latest”, these sources indicated.
The idea discussed on Sunday, according to these sources, still consists of the accession of both countries in two phases, the initial one - air and sea borders - coming in at the end of March 2012 and the second, that of the land borders, at the end of July 2012. The sources reported that no specific objections on the part of the delegations were made on Sunday 23 October.
The work will now continue at the level of EU home affairs ministers, or at the latest at head of state and government level in December if no decision has been reached earlier, stated a source from the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the EU.
Kept out of the Schengen zone since March 2011, when Sophia and Bucharest were supposed to join, the two capitals also had to deal with the refusals of the Netherlands and Finland in September, when the Polish Presidency was pushing the idea of a first accession phase at the end of October 2011. The Hague and Helsinki, with the unofficial support of other capitals, are still not convinced by the Bulgarian and Romanian efforts in the fields of the fight against corruption and of legal reforms, despite the complete technical preparation of the two countries to join Schengen. (SP/transl.fl)