Brussels, 29/10/2012 (Agence Europe) - President of Bulgaria Rossen Plevneliev has attributed the failure of his country to join the Schengen area to the political troubles in Romania, affirming that the “problem (was) clearly not Bulgaria”, Bulgarian media state. As expected, ministers for home affairs from the Schengen area and their representatives gave no positive signal to the two candidates in Luxembourg on 25 October, and postponed any decision until the JHA Council in March 2013.
The postponement is motivated by the continuing refusal of The Hague to integrate the two eastern European countries into Schengen, and also the concerns provoked in the summer of 2012 by the Romanian political backwash which turned Belgium and Germany against them.
Plevneliev repeated that he was in favour of the two countries joining the Schengen area in two phases - first opening up air borders, and then land borders. But “apparently we must wait for Romania to do its work”, he said, adding that the next cooperation and verification mechanism (CVM) report on Romania, planned after the elections in December, “is as important for us” (see EUROPE 10695). Before the leaders' war erupted between President Traian Basescu and Prime Minister Victor Ponta, the concerns of countries belonging to Schengen were more about Bulgaria and its organised crime - with member states judging Sofia a little further behind Bucharest.