Romania and Bulgaria have definitely
\nmet all the criteria for their Schengen accession and the European Union
\nsupports this move. The statement was made on Tuesday by the European
\nCommission President Jean-Claude Juncker
\nat the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, who said:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
As regards Romania’s
\naccession to the Schengen area, I will repeat what I have already said before,
\nnamely that the Commission was right to propose the accession of Romania and
\nBulgaria to the Schengen area, given that these two countries have met the
\naccession criteria. And it should be quite elementary that if a country meets
\nthe requirements, that country must be allowed to join Schengen. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This was Juncker’s answer to the question
\nregarding the stage of the two countries’ accession to this border-free area.
\nAccording to Radio Romania’s correspondent in Strasbourg, quoting diplomatic sources, the two countries’
\nSchengen accession might take place in two stages, starting the second half of
\nthis year. Romania has complied with the accession criteria for years now, but it has failed to join Schengen for
\npolitical reasons, which have to do with the widespread corruption in the
\ncountry. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Bucharest authorities have constantly emphasized the fact that the
\ntechnical criteria for accession have been fully met. It’s worth mentioning
\nthat no other candidate country, except for Romania and Bulgaria, have
\npreviously had to comply with criteria other than the technical ones. However,
\nthe latest European reports on Romania, issued under the Cooperation and
\nVerification Mechanism, assessing the progress made in terms of judicial reform
\nand anti-corruption efforts are positive. Also, Romania has proven that,
\nalongside Frontex, is perfectly able to protect the EU borders. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The issue of
\nthe Schengen area, which has been under scrutiny lately due to the wave of
\nmigrants fleeing war zones and poverty in the Middle East and Africa, has also
\nbeen debated these days by the European radio network Euranet, which includes
\nRadio Romania. Provisional results of an opinion poll commissioned by Euranet
\nshows that 65% of citizens say the freedom of movement within the European
\nUnion should be preserved, while 9% believe it should be restricted due to the
\nterrorist threat. Euranet organizes monthly debates, part of the series
\nCitizens’ Corner, in an attempt to get as close as possible to people’s
\nneeds, and provide them with information on their rights, through open
\ndialogue. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Romania has met all the criteria for their Schengen accession and the European Union supports this move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":111,"featured_media":63593,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[38448,38447,38449,37105],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-68273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-citizens-corner","tag-ec-president-jean-claude-junker","tag-euranet","tag-romanias-schengen-accession"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n