Brussels, 07/03/2013 (Agence Europe) - Another meeting will take place at the end of the year but there is no guarantee of the outcome. In Brussels on Thursday, Bulgaria and Romania once again had to make do with nice sounding words from their European partners, who are still rather loath to allow them to join the Schengen club or provide them with an exact time frame. The two candidate countries have been left waiting at the door of the free movement area for more than two years and are now confronted by a small group of countries led by a hard-line Germany, which expects further efforts from them in tackling corruption and in crime prevention, before any decision can be made on their joining.
Germany will be holding elections next September and has become the effective spokesman for this group of countries, through the minister for home affairs, Hans-Peter Friedrich, who was joined last Thursday by the Netherlands and to a certain extent by Finland and Austria, who have not been entirely convinced by the two countries' ability to join the free movement area. In opposition to this small group of countries are Italy, Spain, Greece, Denmark and Poland, which have attempted to argue on behalf of the disappointed candidate countries. This group believes that they are ready to enter the Schengen area, according to one source. One source explained that the affair has received a hearing and that “at no time was there any question of voting (on joining Schengen) during this meeting”. The Irish Presidency of the EU Council of Ministers (Ireland, it should be remembered, is not a member of the Schengen area) was also quite clear and indicated that the dossier would no longer be tackled under its Presidency and it would be directly sent on to Lithuania.
During the press conference, the Irish minister responsible for this issue, Alan Shatter, was eager to appear positive, however, and asserted that they should see that the glass was half full rather than half empty and that he was relatively optimistic and hoped that things could evolve by the autumn. This is also the position of the Austrian minister, Johanna Mikl-Leitner, who said that she hoped the situation would allow for a decision to be made in the autumn.
Her German colleague, however, said that no decision could he made before the Commission produced a new CVM report on the two countries at the end of 2013. The famous CVM report assesses the two countries' progress in the judicial arena, he explained. Speaking on behalf of the Netherlands, Fred Teeven, responsible for this issue, asserted that “nothing will happen before December”.
This is a bitter blow to Bulgaria and Romania and, according to one source, “they explained during the discussion that they'd spent a lot of money on coming up to speed and making their borders secure”. Bulgaria also stressed that, “with the crisis, all this money could have been spent differently”. The Commission has always argued for a clear distinction between technical criteria required for joining Schengen and its CVM reports, which are now being used by member states to keep Bulgaria and Romania out. Until now, however, this has proved futile.
When he arrived in Brussels, the German minister announced his intentions and reiterated his concerns. According to the AFP, he said that “a number of weaknesses persist, particularly in the legal field”. The current situation therefore does not make it possible to say: “now, let's get rid of the borders”. He also said that this was also a question regarding “the security of European citizens”.
The minister, however, highlighted even more concerns and underlined the dangers relating to free movement and “benefits tourism”. He also complained that he had observed a bigger proportion of poor Bulgarians and Romanians in Germany. Together with the Netherlands, Austria and the United Kingdom, Germany has also questioned the Commission on the subject and the four countries are urging it to introduce concrete measures to tackle this problem. Asked about this issue, Jonathan Todd, a spokesman for Commissioner Laszlo Andor, said that this is not a problem and that they were not going to produce proposals on a problem that did not exist. The same line was put forward by Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström, who indicated on Thursday that the Commission was not intending to change the directive on free movement. (SP/transl.fl)