The resolution, based on a petition submitted to the European Parliament by Romanian civil society to challenge the legality of Austria’s veto against Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, will be delayed for at least one month due to Bulgaria’s insistence on a mention in the text. on parity with Romania, MEP Vlad Gheorghe from the Renew group said on Wednesday in Brussels. According to him, the purpose of the resolution is to put pressure on the next meetings of the Council of Justice and Internal Affairs (JAI), where it is decided to include in the agenda the issue of the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen.

The resolution, based on a petition submitted by civil society in Romania, has the rapporteur Rares Bohdan from the PPE group and co-authors Vlad Gheorghe from the Renew group and Cristian Terhes from the ECR (European Conservatives and Reformists) group. speakers.

What Bulgaria demands

• “The extremely important topic that keeps us in place, as far as I’m concerned, is that the Bulgarian colleagues insist that whenever Romania is mentioned, there is a mention of Bulgaria.
• Or it changes the purpose of the resolution, because we relied on the Romanian petition for Romania, and now we’re practically adding Bulgaria, one by one, and everything is different. At this moment we are here, this is what we are discussing,” the USR MEP told Romanian journalists in Strasbourg, Agerpres reports.

For this reason, he explained, it was impossible to make progress on other clauses, one of the most important being that in which Romania demands an assessment of the damage it has suffered and how the countries that caused it can be made to pay in the future.

The Romanian MEP said that under these conditions, the June deadline for submitting the resolution would be postponed until at least July, if not September.

• “Of course, this is a very big topic for them (no – for Bulgarians), this is a country where elections have just been held, a country that currently does not have a political government, has a technocratic government that is being prepared. Just today they appointed a new prime minister, who is now actually a European commissioner.
• So this Brussels-Strasbourg area is very important to them on the public agenda, just as Schengen is as important a topic as it is to us, and they don’t want it to appear in their country. that they did nothing. I think that’s where all this pressure comes from,” said Gheorghe.

He says that it is not a problem to introduce these references to Bulgaria, given that the two countries are together in the Schengen file, but the fact that the discussions in question are delaying the completion and voting of the resolution.

What is the rate of the resolution of the European Parliament

According to Vlad Gheorghe, the stake of the resolution is to put pressure on the next meetings of the Council of Justice and Internal Affairs (JAI), where it was decided to include the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen to the agenda.

• “I think it is too late for the JAI meeting, which is also under the Swedish presidency, in June.
• But for the other meetings of this body, we have to move and we have to have this resolution, which, if it has the text I talked about earlier, will be a huge tool of pressure,” said Vlad Gheorghe.

On March 22, Romanian Members of the European Parliament appealed to the Committee on Petitions of the European Legislature for the European Parliament and the European Commission to challenge the legality of the veto applied by Austria against the accession of Romania to the Schengen area due to the violation of European law and treaties, as well as discrimination against Romanians. The petition was initiated by Rezvan Nicolaescu through the Clean Energy and Climate Change Association.

“You’ve made progress, but we have to tell you there’s still a long way to go”

On April 26, Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, who blocked Romania’s entry into Schengen, was in Bucharest and told Romanians that he was “very sympathetic” to their expectations, that the authorities had made progress in securing borders and managing migration, but there was more to come. “long way”.

An official from Vienna said that “Austrian citizens face the same dilemma when they are subject to checks in Germany.”

The official from Vienna repeated the same figures he used to prevent Romania from joining Schengen: last year, more than 110,000 people entered Austria illegally, of which more than 80,000 were unregistered, and the border protection system still does not work. He said he saw “great things” at the Romanian border police headquarters, that Romania “has made progress and is on the right track, but there is still a long way to go:

• “I am very sympathetic to the minister’s complaint and to the expectations of the Romanian people regarding the next phase of Schengen accession, but at the moment you have to think that Austrian citizens face the same dilemma when they are subject to checks with Germany.
• You have made great progress, you are on the right track, but we have to tell you that there is still a long way to go.”

When asked persistently by Romanian journalists whether Austria will vote for Romania’s accession to the Schengen area this year, an Austrian official said that he could not give a date on this matter:

• “I will tell you frankly: for my part, I cannot tell you today’s date. First of all, I want to achieve results so that the EU is protected in the area of ​​external borders.”
• “I can only repeat: I cannot talk to you about the date, we are still far from the point where we can say that the system is working, and therefore I am fighting with many partners together so that the system can be improved.”
• Gerhard Karner’s visit to the capital of Romania took place in the context of the fact that a number of EU member states sent signals from Bucharest itself that Romania should join the Schengen area this year.

• Arriving in Bucharest, the Minister of the Interior of Austria remains in the same position: I cannot tell you the date of accession to Schengen. The room is not functional

How long can Austria block Romania’s entry into Schengen?

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said on April 28, Politico reported, that Austria would retain veto power over Romania and Bulgaria joining the Schengen zone until Vienna sees a “sustainable reduction” in the number of asylum seekers.

• “Frankly, it’s important for us that the numbers come down, and there has to be a steady decline,” Schallenberg said, calling the veto a “red flag” for Brussels.
• “We must understand that when we see more than 100,000 asylum applications every 12 months, it is difficult for us in Austria to simply allow this dysfunctional system to continue,” the head of Austrian diplomacy added.

We will remind you that on December 8, 2022, the Council of Justice and Home Affairs (JAI) of the European Union rejected the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen and accepted only the request of Croatia. Austria managed to block a favorable decision for our country in the JAI Council, because unanimity is required for entry into Schengen. It was joined by the Netherlands on the condition that they oppose the accession of Bulgaria, and the vote was cast “together with Romania”.

After blocking Romania’s entry into Schengen, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehhammer and Interior Minister Gerhard Karner claimed that of the more than 100,000 immigrants or asylum seekers who arrived in Austria, 75,000 were not registered anywhere, and that this must have happened when crossing the EU’s external border. They claimed that many of the unregistered arrived via Romania or Bulgaria, contradicting the Romanian authorities. (Photo: Dreamstime.com)

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