Romania and the Schengen area
Initially scheduled for March 2011, the accession of Romania jointly with Bulgaria to the Schengen area has repeatedly been postponed, the Netherlands being the main opposing country. The reasons invoked over time are related to Romania’s failing to reach the objectives laid down in the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism pertaining to corruption, justice and fighting organized crime, though no connections should formally be made between the Schengen accession and the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.
Corina Cristea, 19.09.2017, 13:14
Initially scheduled for March 2011, the accession of Romania jointly with Bulgaria to the Schengen area has repeatedly been postponed, the Netherlands being the main opposing country. The reasons invoked over time are related to Romania’s failing to reach the objectives laid down in the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism pertaining to corruption, justice and fighting organized crime, though no connections should formally be made between the Schengen accession and the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.
The issue continues to be of interest to Bucharest as well as to Brussels, against the backdrop of the situation triggered by the unprecedented migrants’ exodus to Europe in recent years. Last week, making his annual state of the union speech in the European Parliament, the President of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker said that Romania and Bulgaria must rapidly join the Schengen free movement area.
Early this week, the European Commissioner for the Security Union, Julian King, on a formal visit to Bucharest, reiterated that idea. The Commissioner said that Schengen would be stronger and all of the countries would benefit if Romania were part of the Schengen area. Julian King made the statement against the backdrop of talks he had with Romanian officials on the activity at European level, the efforts made to combat terrorism, cyber and organized crime. The Commissioner also announced that at the beginning of the week, a package of measures would be taken at the European Commission’s level to increase the EU’s capacity of resistance and of deterring terrorist attacks. Romanian officials recalled that Bucharest met all Schengen accession criteria, Romania successfully fulfilling its obligations as the EU’s Eastern border state. Liviu Dragnea, the leader of the Social-Democratic Party, the main party of the ruling coalition, explains:
“Schengen accession brings advantages not only to Romania, but also to all EU countries. Technically speaking, Romania has had nothing to achieve for quite a while. Many people tell me that certain countries, where elections are due this year, must take this stand. That is an unfair attitude towards Romania, utterly unfair. Romania secures the EU’s quite long Eastern border, Romania has made very big investments, has made great efforts and it is involved in all security structures at the Eastern border and still, it is denied its Schengen accession; the motivation invoked is not related to what was discussed in the beginning of this process.”
The statement made by Liviu Dragnea, president of the Chamber of Deputies, came after the Netherlands and Germany had reiterated their opposition to Romania’s Schengen accession. (Translated by A.M. Palcu)
