The Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union surveyed, on Thursday 7 February in Bucharest, at an informal meeting of Interior Ministers, the propensity of Member States to accept Romania's and Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen area of free movement of persons, said Romanian Minister Carmen Dan, convinced that some countries hostile to this accession now have a less firm position.
The Netherlands is the country whose opposition to this accession has always been public, but countries such as France and Germany are also reluctant to allow both countries full access to the free movement area.
In any case, the Romanian minister announced that she would discuss with each of the countries opposed to this accession and recalled that her country met "all the security criteria".
Alongside him, European Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos asked the Member States to extend the Schengen area to these two countries in the coming months and to give their "green light" during the Romanian Presidency semester.
This Schengen enlargement was discussed as part of a broader midday discussion on Thursday on the functioning and return to normal of the free movement area, which has been marked for several years by internal border control measures in some Member States.
During this discussion, it was discussed in particular to strengthen the Schengen external borders, a kind of guarantee for the proper internal functioning of the area. The Commissioner therefore welcomed the rapid progress of work in both the European Parliament and the Council on the new mandate of the European coastguard and border guard agency, which he hoped to see finalised "very soon".
Counter-terrorism
In the morning, Interior Ministers had an exchange on counter-terrorism policies in the EU. The discussion was relatively general, with Ministers and the Commission recalling the legislation to be implemented, such as the new rules on the withdrawal of online terrorist content currently under discussion in the Parliament, or welcoming recent progress, such as the agreement on the interoperability of information systems. They also took note of the recommendations of the Special Commission on Terrorism adopted in December in Strasbourg. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)