Brussels, 02/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - Romanian Foreign Minister Leonard Orban has said that the chances of seeing his country, and, indeed, Bulgaria, join the Schengen area were “not very hopeful”. With enlargement of the passport-free area currently being blocked by the Netherlands, he acknowledged that any decision to extend Schengen was dependent on publication by the Commission of two positive reports on the cooperation and verification mechanism (CVM), which assesses the progress made by the two candidate countries in addressing corruption and judicial reform. Diplomatic sources let it be known in Copenhagen on 27 January that the Commission's interim report on Bulgaria, due for publication in February, would be negative. Since the fate of the two countries' Schengen accession hopes is linked, the chances for Romania would also seem to be slight.
Romanian President Traian Basescu was critical on Thursday 2 February of Dutch “abuse of Romania and Bulgaria”, AFP reports. “I have to be frank and admit that the period of crisis and a certain rise in anti-European parties within some governments worry me, and I said as much at the last European Council”, Basescu said, alluding to the fact that the Party for Freedom (PVV) of extreme right-wing politician Geert Wilders is propping up the Dutch government. “Romania deserves to be in the Schengen area right now”, he went on, adding that his country had met all the technical criteria for accession. (SP/transl.rt)