From Schengen to CVM

Romania enjoys the full support from Brussels for its accession to Schengen. There are also positive signals regarding the lifting of the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification

Corina Cristea, 28.10.2022, 13:50

Romania
could soon get the green light for its long awaited accession to Schengen. The
issue of Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to Europe’s border-free area could be
included on the agenda of the Justice and Home Affairs Council over 8-9
December. The final decision on the enlargement is to be made by the EU
members, which are part of the Schengen zone, and only the Netherlands, which
has constantly opposed Romania’s accession, has again proved reluctant.

Authorities
in the Hague say that in principle they do not oppose Romania’s accession, but
the Dutch Parliament has recently recommended that no irreversible decision be
made without additional verifications. A voluntary assessment mission has this
month come to Romania and Bulgaria and experts of the European Commission and
the member states have submitted their report to the working group for Schengen.

The
Netherlands didn’t send its experts with the mission, which according to
Romania’s Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca, has ended with conclusions as positive
as possible. Ciuca says he hasn’t read the report, which hasn’t been published
yet, but got the good news from the Romanian representatives who participated
in its analysis. The report ‘confirms Romania’s preparation for the Schengen
acquis and brings us closer to reaching this country objective’, Prime Minister
Ciuca says.

Accompanied
by the Interior and Justice Ministers, the head of the Romanian executive has
this week flown to Brussels, where he got assurances that Romania benefits from
full support for its accession to Schngen. All the European officials, Ciuca
talked to during his two-day visit, say the same thing.

Nicolae Ciucă: We
have proved that we can protect the EU’s external borders. We did that even
before the beginning of the conflict and focused even more on the issue after
its commencement. And the pressure on the border personnel was as complex and
dynamic as it could possibly be.

Romania’s
results have been appreciated in Brussels and that is also visible in the
non-legislative resolution recently passed by the European Parliament with a
landslide majority, which calls on the EU Council to take all the necessary
measures to endorse a decision by the end of the year on Romania and Bulgaria’s
entry into Schengen. We have also received positive signals regarding the
lifting of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) and the Prime Minister
has mentioned the talks he had in this respect with the president of the
European Commission Ursula von der Leyen while the Justice Minister Catalin
Predoiu held applied technical talks with other European officials.

The
Prime Minister has mentioned the stage in the process of endorsing the new
justice laws, underlining that the progress in the past months may serve as a
good basis for a positive CVM report from the European Commission. During his
visit to Brussels Ciuca told the Romanian MEPs that joint action is needed
concerning both the country’s accession to Schengen and having the Cooperation
and Verification Mechanism lifted.

(bill)