Decision of Romania's accession to Schengen, delayed
Cyprus Presidency of the EU Council decided to delay the JAI Council of 20th September 2012 which was to discuss Romania's accession to Schengen.
Articol de Carmen Gavrilă, 12 Septembrie 2012, 07:36
The Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs confirmed that the Cyprus EU Presidency decided the postponement.
Topics which would have to be discussed on September the 20th, among which the most important was the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen, were postponed to the next meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs, which will take place on 25-26 October.
European Affairs Minister, Leonard Orban, told for RRA that we will see whether, in October, will be a decision on the accession of Romania or the matter will be postponed again.
Cyprus Presidency of the Council of Europe decided after consulting with the Member States.
"It is very likely that the main reason is that the conditions necessary for a decision on Schengen enlargement were not achieved," said Leonard Orban. The European Affairs Minister explained that it is likely to have been Member States that are not prepared at this time to accept the extension of the Schengen area.
Cyprus Presidency of the EU announced that the topic of Romania’s accession will be on the agenda of the JAI Council scheduled for October, and by the next meeting will be prepared to discuss more substantial and important files for a decision.
The postponement decision of JAI Council meeting comes as the Netherlands maintains its opposition to the accession of Romania, but Germany and Belgium have nuanced their positions and will first wait for the additional report on justice in Romania by the end of this year.
The European Affairs Minister, Leonard Orban, said that there are some signals from countries such as Germany, not only the Netherlands, that there are doubts about Romania's accession to Schengen, and that is possible to be other countries in this situation.
He also explained that predictions cannot be made about how will occur the next meeting of the JAI Council and that it is premature to discuss any results.
Netherlands requested Romania and Bulgaria progress in judicial reform under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, imposed to Romania to join the EU.
The next European Commission report on MCV will be presented later this year.
Translated by Alexandra-Diana Mircea
MTTLC, Bucharest University
