Photo: Bulgaria ON AIR
The criteria for the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen no longer have anything to do with the originally established ones, on the basis of which the other European countries joined. Now countries like Hungary and Austria, which are highly critical of Europe and European decisions, but benefit from all the European money and laws, are blackmailing other European countries into imposing their own agenda on Brussels, even if by doing so they incur hostility from their neighbors countries, writes the Romanian publication Newsweek.
“The Netherlands has agreed to Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area,” the Dutch Ministry of Justice announced, ending the country’s long-standing opposition to the move.
“Bulgaria meets the conditions set for accession to the Schengen area, and therefore we can negotiate a solution that will lead to its full accession, but the parliament in The Hague has the last word,” said the Dutch authorities.
The Dutch cabinet noted that post-accession monitoring is desirable for both border management and the rule of law.
Negotiations are ongoing, and Romanian sources say Austria is currently reluctant to admit full membership next year.
Austria listed a number of conditions to allow Bulgaria and Romania to enter Schengen only through air borders, delaying full accession, including land borders, to a later stage.
One of the conditions set by Austria is the strengthening of the border between Bulgaria and Romania, which further irritated Sofia, because if the two countries join Schengen, this internal border should disappear completely, not be tightened further.
At the same time, Austria pointed out that the strengthening of the border between Bulgaria and Romania will only be a temporary measure, similar to the temporary border control between Austria and Germany, and this should not be a problem for Sofia.
On December 22, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Călăcu expressed hope that the Schengen accession negotiations will be completed in the coming days and a clear timetable for accession will be obtained, including for land borders, which is the most important aspect that will unlock traffic forever between Romania and Bulgaria, Romania and Hungary or Greece and Bulgaria.
“For this year, we hope that in the next two days we will finish the negotiations for joining the Schengen area, and in the first place these will be the air and sea borders, and we will also finish as much of the infrastructure as possible,” added the Minister the chairman.
In the context of the discussions with the Austrian side, President Klaus Iohannis stated that there are still many aspects that need to be agreed in order to obtain Austria’s full support for the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen. Although he is skeptical about an emergency meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council before the end of the year, Iohannis said he does not rule out the possibility of finding a solution before the end of this year. /BGNES
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2023-12-26 19:15:00
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