Romania Expects Final Decision on Schengen Membership to Be Taken on December 8-9
The Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union set the calendar for the decision regarding the accession of Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania to the borderless area of Schengen.
It has been confirmed that the final decision is set to be taken at the beginning next month in the Justice and Home Affairs Council, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“I received from the Czech Presidency of the European Union Council congratulations for the success of the verification visits regarding the Schengen conditions in our country, as well as the calendar for the decision on the accession of Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia to the single European space,” USR MEP Vlad Gheorghe said on Facebook.
According to the Romania Insider report, there will be two European meetings this month, while the decisive vote in this regard will be held on December 9 in the Council of Justice and Internal Affairs.
Even though Bulgaria and Romania have met all the technical conditions since 2011 in order to become the newest Schengen Zone Members, the process has not been finalized yet.
Recently, the Netherlands’ lawmakers introduced a new resolution calling on the country’s government not to take irreversible steps regarding the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen until further investigations into border surveillance and about the decline in corruption crime in both these Balkan countries.
However, last month, the Members of the European Parliament called on the EU countries to allow Bulgaria and Romania to join the Schengen Zone as soon as possible and end discrimination.
According to them, the Council should introduce a new decision regarding Bulgaria and Romania accession to the Schengen Area by the end of this year, emphasizing that this should ensure the abolishment of checks of people at all internal borders for these two countries during the next year.
“Maintaining internal border checks is discriminatory and has a serious impact on the lives of mobile workers and citizens. By obstructing imports, exports, and the free flow of goods from freight ports, they also harm the European Union single market,” MEPs stressed in a recent report of the European Parliament.
MEPs threw criticism towards the European Council’s failure to take a concrete decision for both Balkan countries’ accession to the borderless area of Schengen while mentioning the fact that the Schengen Zone is among the most significant achievements of the European Union.
