Romania and Bulgaria should become
<\/p>\n One of the evoked
<\/p>\n
This two stage approach sets a dangerous
<\/p>\n
Romania and Bulgaria’s Schengen accession is again in the limelight<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108,"featured_media":46090,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[39491,34542,30037,39492],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-79423","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-community-acquis","tag-libe","tag-schengen-accession","tag-sergei-stanishev"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nSchengen member states as soon as possible, the MEPs on the Committee<\/em> on Civil Liberties<\/em>, Justice and Home Affairs have urged, a
\ncommuniqu\u00e9 posted on the site of the European Parliament on Monday reads. The two neighbouring states, that joined the European Union in 2007,
\nshould have received the status of full fledged members of the free movement
\narea as early as March 2011. All hopes
\nshattered however at that time, although Bucharest and Sofia had consistently
\nfollowed the accession strategy and met the requirements, complying with all
\nmajor points in the Schengen acquis. The
\nopposition of such countries as the Netherlands, Austria and Germany has led to
\nthe repeated postponement of the two countries’ Schengen accession.<\/p>\n
\nreasons included the countries’ failure to comply with some of the commitments
\nmade under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, through which the
\nEuropean Commission is monitoring the evolutions in the justice field. Now the
\nMEPs on the Committee<\/em> on Civil Liberties<\/em>, Justice and Home Affairs have brought
\nagain the issue into the focus of attention, saying the Schengen area is a
\nunique system and one of the EU’s biggest achievements, and the refusal to
\nreceive Bulgaria and Romania as full fledged members has produced negative
\nconsequences not only for the two countries, but also for the whole of the
\nEuropean Union. Furthermore, they are opposed to the intensely circulated idea
\nof a partial accession, starting with air and sea borders in a first stage, to
\nbe later continued with a prospective land borders accession.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nprecedent which has no solid legal justification and attracts a series of
\neconomic, social and political inconveniences for the EU, a communiqu\u00e9 quotes the Bulgarian rapporteur,
\nSergei Stanishev, a member of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and
\nDemocrats in the EP, as saying. Maintaining or reintroducing internal controls
\nin the Schengen area undermines the citizens’ confidence in the process of
\nintegration and in the European institutions, the MEPs have underlined, adding
\nthat the enlargement of the Schengen area should not be affected by
\ndeficiencies linked to other policies pursued by the community bloc, such as
\nthe asylum and migration policy. Romania and Bulgaria are currently partially
\napplying the Schengen acquis, with checkouts being carried out at their
\nborders. The report issued by the Committee<\/em> on Civil Liberties<\/em>, Justice and Home Affairs, without having a
\nlegislative significance, is to be submitted in December to the plenary session
\nof the European Parliament, which agreed with Bulgaria and Romania’s Schengen
\naccession as early as June 2011, reiterating its standpoint several times since
\nthen. <\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"