The European Parliament's Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) commission has approved Romania's entry in the Schengen area. The decision was made on May 2 and also includes neighbor country Bulgaria. The European Parliament will held an expanded voting session in June, while the final decision will come from the European Commission. The committee believes that, before the end of 2011, the EU should set a date for applying the Schengen acquis to Bulgaria and Romania. The committee vote was 33 in favour, and 3 against.

The two countries have met the necessary conditions, based on the evaluation reports on their preparations, say Members of the Parliament in a press release. However, the Parliament must be kept informed of additional measures to be taken in the Bulgaria-Turkey-Greece area to cope with a possible surge in migration pressure.

Under current EU rules, the key condition for joining the Schengen area is the ability to ensure the security of EU’s external borders. France and Germany have previously stated their discontent with the two countries joining the Schengen area.

“Are these two countries ready to enter Schengen? My answer is clearly yes. And this is clear in all the evaluation reports and it is clear from the visit we carried out. In some areas these two countries are even better prepared than some countries who are already Schengen members”, said Civil Liberties Committee rapporteur Carlos Coelho.

After considering evaluations of the two Member States' progress and the findings of follow-up visits by expert teams, the Civil Liberties Committee concluded that although some remaining issues will require regular reporting and further attention in the future, they do not constitute an obstacle to full Schengen membership for Bulgaria and Romania.

Schengen co-operation began on 14 June 1985, with the Schengen Agreement. The Schengen area has since grown to encompass 25 members: the EU countries Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the three associated non-EU countries Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.

editor@romania-insider.com