Brussels, 21/01/2014 (Agence Europe) - Bulgaria does not expect to become part of the Schengen area before 2017, a year before it takes over the EU's rotating presidency, the country's foreign minister, Kristian Vigenin, is reported by Euractiv on Monday. According to the minister, the decision to allow Bulgaria to join the Schengen Area could be taken in 2014 and will begin with the opening up of airspace borders in 2015 and land borders two years later, in 2017. Both Bulgaria and Romania were supposed to join the free movement area in 2011 but, following a number of obstacles raised by member states such as France, Germany and the Netherlands, this movement to join the area was slowed down. The two countries have also been seriously shaken by political and corruption scandals that have not helped them either. On Wednesday 22 January, the European Commission is due to present its new interim reports on the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. This mechanism was imposed on the two countries in 2007 and assesses the progress that they have made in legal affairs and fighting corruption. On Monday, Vigenin indicated that he expected this monitoring to continue under the next Commission. With regard to the report on 22 January, the minister had already predicted that it would “not be very positive”.
According to leaks in the local press, as reported by the AFP, the EU is expected to note some progress that has been made, particularly in the legal institutions. In Romania, for example, the number of those found guilty of serious corruption rose from 155 in 2006 to more than 1,000 in 2013, according to the anticorruption prosecutor's office (DNA). Nonetheless, EU criticism of political attacks against the independence of the judiciary is also expected to be noted. In December, during a day known as “Black Tuesday”, for justice in the country, Romanian parliamentarians granted themselves “super-immunity”, which has been denounced by the Commission. The measures were ultimately declared unconstitutional. (SP/transl.fl)