Romania seems to have EU Commission’s support to join Schengen
Romania and Bulgaria have more support from Brussels on their way to join the Schengen zone. During a recent speech, the European Commissioner responsible for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström emphasized the importance of safeguarding the Schengen agreement coming up with a proposal.
“The Commission has proposed a Schengen governance regime which would ensure that decisions on the temporary reintroduction of border controls – in the very exceptional situations where this would be justified – should, as a rule, be taken at the EU level,” said Mrs. Malmström during her speech on Wednesday.
Talking about the success of the Schengen zone during years, the EU Commissioner referred also to Romania and Bulgaria, the newest EU members, stating their readiness to join the passport-free travel zone.
“Today, the Schengen Area encompasses most of the EU's Member States and a number of 'associated' non-EU States, and I hope that the Council will soon decide that internal border controls with Bulgaria and Romania can finally be lifted,” added Malmström.
Romania and Bulgaria were about to join the Schengen zone in March 2011, but the Netherlands, France and Germany opposed the decision. They asked the countries to better deal with corruption and secure the external borders.
Five member states met in 1985 in the town of Schengen from Luxembourg. Here they signed an agreement to gradually abolish the controls at borders. Although all Schengen member states are in Europe, Schengen isn’t the same as the European Union. European Union and Schengen are two different agreements between European countries. Schengen zone includes 22 European Union countries and three ‘non-EU’ countries (Switzerland, Norway and Iceland).
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