Brussels, 15/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Finland is ready to allow Bulgaria and Romania to join the Schengen area and will lift its veto. This announcement was made in Helsinki on Monday 14 November by Finnish Minister for Foreign Affairs Alexander Stubb on his website novinite.com. Addressing journalists, the minister indicated that Finland had softened its approach and now wants to support the two-phase accession of the two countries to the free movement area. This compromise was examined last September by the respective Schengen ministers for home affairs but it was rejected by both Helsinki and The Hague. The compromise focuses on an initial opening up of air and maritime borders (in March 2012), with land borders later in July. Stubb nevertheless explained that at this stage, the Netherlands was still opposed to this compromise and explained that unanimity of the 25 Schengen member countries is necessary to allow the two countries to join.
In Finland, measures are currently being taken to provide assurances that the Schengen system is “watertight and that the obligations with regard to organised crime and the strengthening of the rule of law and anti-corruption measures are fulfilled”.
In Brussels, the staff of the spokesperson from the permanent representation confirmed this position (unanimous at government level) and that Helsinki was determined to play a “constructive” role in this dossier. Nonetheless, another source indicated that “our position has not changed” overall and that Finland still wants to be very vigilant with regard to progress made by Sofia and Bucharest in terms of reforms and tackling corruption, and that this “is why we expressed our concerns in September”.
The two candidate countries were initially expected to join the Schengen area in spring 2011 but France and Germany opposed the accession and in September they received official support from the Netherlands and Finland. On 23 October, during the EU27 European summit, Bucharest and Sofia did, nonetheless, receive a number of guarantees with regard to them joining the Schengen area. The EU27 agreed to take a decision (in favour) by December at the latest during another summit. The Polish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers wanted to obtain a decision before this meeting because the EU27 summit would not be able to tackle this question if disagreements persisted. This summit will take place on 9 December, a few days after another home affairs ministers' meeting. (SP/transl.fl)