Two days after the vote in the European Parliament to support the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen Agreement, the Dutch Parliament has again declared that there is no need to open the champagne in Bucharest just yet.

Moreover, the message was sent as clearly as possible, in diplomatic terms, even by Prime Minister Mark Rutte a week ago at a press conference in Romania together with President Klaus Iohannis and Prime Minister Nicolae Ciucé.

Now MPs in The Hague have said it again, and even Rutte. A pro-Romanian vote will not be given unless all conditions are met. This time it is clear: clear results of the Schengen evaluation mission, MCV, issues related to corruption and organized crime.

Technically, Romania meets the criteria since 2011.

“Based on the principle of the rule of law, we have done everything possible at Government and Coalition level to take the necessary steps, in direct coordination with the Commission, to have a package of justice laws that are fair. in the European Union and leads to the process of modernization of justice in Romania. Regarding the fight against organized crime, we have state institutions that are very well consolidated, and I am convinced that they fulfill their duty, as they have been doing so far,” Prime Minister Nicolae Chuke said.

As for the assessment mission, which ended last week, it produced “a very good result for Romania, judging by the information we have,” President Klaus Iohannis said.

However, he adds, it is necessary to clarify some “particularly political” issues. “For this, everyone is involved to the maximum,” adds Yohannis.

The window of opportunity for Romania and why the Netherlands is against it

Romania currently has a window of opportunity to join Schengen, the free movement zone it has not integrated into 15 years after joining the EU.

11 years after the technical criteria were met, this will be the first time that a vote on Romania’s accession to Schengen will be submitted to the JAI Council. So far, this has not been done because a favorable decision requires unanimity, and over time several countries have opposed it. Holland is always between them.

But why vote now, outside the context of security after the start of the war in the Netherlands, in which Romania has shown that it can protect the borders of the Union, which parliamentarians from The Hague refer to?

The agreement at the diplomatic level was that the Netherlands would not be the only one to oppose if France and Germany promoted Romania’s Schengen integration.

Germany sent a strong signal of support even through Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s voice. “Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria meet all the requirements to become full Schengen members. Schengen is one of the greatest achievements of the European Union and we must protect and develop it. It also means closing the remaining gaps. I will work for them to become full members,” said the German official.

French President Emmanuel Macron, during his summer visit to Romania at the Mykhailo Kogelnicanu base, openly declared his support for Romania’s accession to Schengen. “We want this file to progress, to move forward. France has been close to Romania for so many years,” he said.

So why does the Netherlands have reservations?

The political situation in the Netherlands will not give Romania peace in the short time left before the vote in the Council.

Mark Rutte’s government has an extremely fragile majority in the parliament in The Hague. After the March 2021 election, Rutte had the longest negotiations to inaugurate his fourth government, with the installation taking place 299 days after the January 2022 election.

“Mark Rutte is not a strong prime minister, and before the vote in the Council he should vote in the parliament,” said a Romanian official familiar with the progress of the negotiations.

“The essence of the problem is the atmosphere in the Netherlands, the problem with migrants. The government is fragile, it is tolerated in the parliament by the extreme right, Eurosceptics. And now the refugee camps in the Netherlands are overcrowded. They are full of migrants from outside the EU, not from Romania, but because of that there is fear and tension. That is why Rutte is so attentive to public opinion and remains a difficult partner in this context,” the Romanian official added.

In fact, Mark Rutte’s caution could also be seen in his restrained speech in the Dutch parliament ahead of the resolution, which urged his government not to take an “irreversible decision” without all guarantees.

• “In principle, we have nothing against the accession of Bulgaria or Romania to Schengen. When they are ready, they can join. The problem is as follows. For both countries, we need an update and assessment under the cooperation and verification mechanism. This is now done for Romania, but not for Bulgaria. This is a problem.
• Second, the mission that is currently taking place within the framework of the Mechanism for the Evaluation and Monitoring of the Schengen Area is not completed. There is currently a lack of (assessment) of the Schengen Information System and how returns are processed. I discussed these issues at length with Klaus Iohannis, the President of Romania, when I met him last week in Sibiu when I visited the Dutch troops.
• We told each other that we would first see what would come out of this, in our opinion, too limited Schengen evaluation mission. In addition, we will look at the results of the MCV assessment and together we will take the initiative of the Commission to say: let’s finish this mission quickly. If these results show they are ready, they can join. The Netherlands will not object, but then the candidate countries must also be strict, fair and committed. The specific problem for Bulgaria is that the MCV is not part of these discussions. In addition, there are many developments at the national level in Bulgaria, because there is no government at the moment.”

A signal from the European Parliament

The European Parliament voted on Tuesday for a resolution demanding the admission of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area. The majority of Dutch MEPs voted “yes”, but representatives of Rutte’s party abstained.

The resolution was adopted with 547 votes “for”, 49 “against” and 43 “abstentions”.

In the document, MEPs state that by the end of 2022, the Council should take all necessary measures to decide on the admission of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen free movement zone. This should ensure the abolition of checks on people at all internal borders of both member states in the first half of 2023, the European Parliament said in a statement.

Noting that the Schengen area is “one of the greatest achievements of the European Union”, MEPs criticized the fact that member states have still not decided on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, although the two countries have long fulfilled the necessary conditions. . According to the members of the European Parliament, control at the internal border is discriminatory and negatively affects the lives of mobile workers and citizens. Blocking imports, exports and the free movement of goods from ports also harms the EU’s single market.

Currently, all EU countries, except Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania, are part of the Schengen zone. This also includes non-EU countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein).

MEPs have repeatedly called for the full accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area, for example in the 2018 resolution on this topic, in the 2020 resolution on the situation in the Schengen area in the context of the pandemic, and in 2021. report on the operation of the space of free movement. Today’s resolution concludes the plenary debate on 5 October 2022.

The accession of new countries to the Schengen area requires a unanimous decision of the EU Council. The Czech Presidency of the Council stated that it intends to hold discussions on this topic by the end of 2022.

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