The European Parliament has voted to approve a new
\nresolution calling for the immediate admission of Romania and Bulgaria into the
\nfree-movement Schengen Area. The resolution was approved with 514 yes votes,
\n107 no votes and 38 abstentions. It is based on a report by the Bulgarian MEP
\nSergey Stanishev, who has criticised the European Council for not allowing the
\naccession of Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen. He supports the need for the
\nimmediate admission of the two states to the free-movement area, insisting on
\nfull-fledged membership, including all borders, land, sea and air. He says a
\npartial accession is categorically rejected, as it not only does not have any
\nlegal justification, but it can also have negative economic, social and
\npolitical repercussions for the entire European Union. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
At present, Romania and
\nBulgaria are only partly applying the Schengen Area regulations, and there are
\nchecks on the borders of the two countries. The resolution passed by the
\nEuropean Parliament emphasizes that maintaining or reintroducing internal
\nSchengen border controls will undermine citizens’ trust in European
\ninstitutions and integration. It recalls that in June 2011, the European
\nParliament gave green light to Romania’s and Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen and
\nhas since reiterated its position several times. Siegfried Muresan, a Romanian
\nMEP and member of the opposition National Liberal Party says the European
\nParliament’s resolution is an important moment for Romania because it was
\npassed with an overwhelming majority, which shows that the country’s place is
\nin Schengen:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This resolution of the European Parliament
\nis not a legal document, because from a legislative point of view it’s the EU
\nCouncil, that is the member states through their interior ministers, who must
\nmake this decision. We, Parliament, do not play a role in this legislative
\nprocess at this stage, but the signal given by Parliament is very important and
\nputs additional pressure on member states to adopt this decision.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Victor Bostinaru, also an MEP but a member of the ruling Social
\nDemocratic Party, says Romania is still to persuade the EU Council to take the
\nfinal decision:<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
It’s good news and we’ve had it before because a similar
\nresolution was adopted before Bulgaria took over the EU presidency, at the end
\nof last year. This new resolution only reaffirms Parliament’s unreserved
\nsupport, being in fact passed with an overwhelming majority. Romania should
\nexplore its opportunities, without hesitation, with subtlety but also with
\nefficiency, so that during our presidency we should be able to move closer to
\nthis objective that we fully deserve to attain.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
The final decision belongs to the interior ministers of the 27 EU member
\nstates and must respect the principle of unanimity. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A non-binding resolution adopted by the European Parliament calls on the European Council to take a swift and affirmative decision on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania as fully-fledged members of the Schengen area<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":78103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29174,29406,116464,28976],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-79943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-bulgaria","tag-european-parliament","tag-romania-en","tag-schengen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n