The European Parliament will vote next week on a new resolution calling for the admission of Romania and Bulgaria as full members of the Schengen area, Bulgarian news agency Novinite informed on December 7 quoting the public agenda of the European Parliament (EP).

The resolution, drawn up on the basis of a report by Bulgarian Socialist MEP Sergei Stanishev (re-elected for the third time as the leader of the Party of the European Socialists on December 8), is a non-legislative one and asks the Council of the European Union to make a quick and positive decision on the accession of the two countries to the no-border Schengen area.

MEPs voiced their support for admitting Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen for the first time in June 2011 and repeatedly confirmed this position afterwards. But the final decision on the two countries' accession must be taken unanimously by the EU Council, an institution that will be chaired by Romania for the first six months in 2019.

At the end of May, the EP reiterated in a resolution that Romania and Bulgaria are ready to join the Schengen area and asked the EU Council to approve the accession of the two states. In the document, the MEPs also condemned the controls at the internal borders of the Schengen area, which restrict freedom of movement between the 26 member states.

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editor@romania-insider.com