The rejection by the Netherlands and Austria on 8 December of the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area of free movement of persons (see EUROPE 13080/1) was discussed at the European summit on Thursday 15 December.
On his arrival in Brussels, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev asked his counterparts to provide him with “a precise deadline” for his country’s entry into this free movement zone.
“We want to be treated like everyone else. We met all the criteria in 2018. Everything else is a matter internal politics of the countries that are still blocking”, he said.
Romanian President Klaus Ioahannis was also expected to discuss the issue with his counterparts.
Questioned upon his arrival in Brussels, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte reiterated his country’s reservations about Bulgaria. The Netherlands continues “to ask for two things: a full evaluation of the implementation of the Schengen Information System and a new report from the Commission under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism” on the rule of law and corruption, he said.
“This is not a no” to Bulgaria, “it’s a ‘not now’”, he added, estimating that these two steps could be completed “around summer” 2023.
At the end of the summit, the President of the European Council, Charles Michel, said he was “optimistic” that a positive decision for Bulgaria and Romania could be taken in “the course of 2023”. “I felt a political commitment to make progress”, he said.
“This is not a question of States versus States, but of security. We have more than 65,000 unregistered migrants and we know that 20,000 of them come from Romania”, said Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, whose country is blocking both Bulgaria and Romania. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)