“In our opinion, accession to Schengen would be beneficial for the Romanian economy, bringing additional potential for growth and more effective integration into European supply chains,” states the Dutch-Romanian Chamber of Commerce. The position of the organization arises in the context of the discussion regarding the possible accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen zone, which was previously opposed by the ruling parties of the Netherlands.

“As the Netherlands has an open economy, the Dutch-Romanian business community fully understands the economic benefits of an efficient internal European market and welcomes further steps in this direction. In our opinion, joining Schengen would be beneficial for the Romanian economy, bringing additional growth potential and more effective integration into European supply chains. In this sense, the NRCC looks forward to the outcome of the political decision-making process,” the Dutch-Romanian Chamber of Commerce reports.

The Netherlands-Romanian Chamber of Commerce (NRCC) was established in 2006 to strengthen bilateral economic relations between the Netherlands and Romania and represents around 170 members, from large multinational companies to small and medium-sized businesses.

“The Netherlands has always been one of the biggest foreign investors in Romania. At the end of 2021, in the ranking by the country of origin of the final investor, the Netherlands took the sixth place with foreign direct investment of 4 billion euros, while the total volume of bilateral trade between the two countries reached the level of approximately 6.5 billion euros,” the NERC notes.

h:2 European Parliament, new resolution on Romania’s accession to Schengen / Mark Rutte’s party abstained from voting

On Tuesday, the European Parliament voted in favor of a new resolution calling on member states to allow Romania and Bulgaria to join the Schengen area without delay.

Among the MEPs from the Netherlands present at the vote on the resolution on the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area, 15 voted “for” and only 4 voted against, and 6 abstained. It should be noted that all MEPs from the party of Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, which is part of “Renew Europe”, abstained from voting.

Visiting Romania a week ago, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that “the Netherlands is not against Romania’s accession to Schengen in principle.” It should be noted that over time, the Netherlands was one of the EU states that opposed Romania’s accession to the Schengen zone, associating the accession with aspects related to justice, corruption and the rule of law in our country.

“The Netherlands is not opposed to accession in principle [României la Schengen]. We say that all eligible countries should join the Schengen area. Romania has taken many steps in the right direction in recent years,” Rutte said.

“At the same time, we say that we can talk about joining Schengen when all the conditions are met. We also have a monitoring mechanism, we also have a cooperation and verification mechanism, the next steps will be. We have to see what will happen next in this procedure, and we will continue to talk, but the Netherlands is in principle not against Romania’s accession to Schengen,” said Mark Rutte.