German MEP Gabriele Bischoff, a member of the ruling SPD party in Berlin, claims that Germany has never opposed the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area.

At a meeting with a group of European journalists organized by the European Socialists in Strasbourg, Bischoff explained that in 2011, when the issue of Schengen expansion was raised in the EU Council, the Netherlands and Finland expressed their opposition, but meanwhile the Finns no longer object.

“Germany has never opposed the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen zone. Then in 2011 the Netherlands and Finland opposed it, Finland had a different government. Otherwise, the Social Democratic position in Germany, as in Finland and elsewhere, is that we support the accession of Romania and Bulgaria, and I think that this speech by Chancellor Scholz attracted attention because he emphasized the next steps which must be included to achieve this goal,” Bischoff said.

“The Netherlands has not provided any explanation” regarding its opposition to the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the European free movement zone, the German vice-president of the Group of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament also said.

“It is very clear that Romania and Bulgaria meet all the criteria that all the other Schengen member states had to meet and since then this decision has been blocked in the EU Council and we, in the European Parliament, had a resolution where we said, that it is totally unacceptable that the EU Council does not move on this issue and it affects 27 million people for 11 years, their freedom of movement, and from the point of view of S&D it is that we do not have freedom of movement in the first place class and class second. If you follow the rules, like in any other field, you have to do it,” said Gabriele Bischoff.

It should be noted that over time, Germany through official channels declared its opposition to the expansion of the Schengen zone by Romania and Bulgaria, the accession of the two states is no longer on the agenda of justice and internal affairs. board (JAI) so as not to get rejected. For example, in 2013 the then German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU) publicly rejected Romania’s accession to Schengen because Bucharest had taken a “dubious political path”.

And in 2017, the then Minister of the Interior of Germany in Merkel’s government, Thomas de Maiziere (CDU), opposed the expansion of the Schengen zone.

Now, however, Germany’s new chancellor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, has said he wants Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia to join the EU’s free movement zone.

Also, the current government of Finland, led by social democrat Sanna Marin, is in favor of Romania joining Schengen, according to information sent by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania. “During the telephone conversation between Minister Bohdan Auresku and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland Pekka Haavisto, the head of Romanian diplomacy also raised the topic of Romania’s accession to the Schengen zone, which is a priority task for Romania. On this occasion, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Finland expressed his country’s full and unconditional support for Romania’s accession to the Schengen zone,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs reported in July 2022 in the context of Romania’s ratification of the protocols on the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO.

Rowana Plumb (PSD): MCV has nothing to do with Schengen

At a meeting in Strasbourg with European journalists, PSD’s Rowana Plumb complained of a “difference in attitude” and argued that Romania’s accession to Schengen should not depend on the resolution of evidence found by the European Commission under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. in justice

“We want to eliminate any fragmentation, we want to eliminate differences in attitudes, we want a united Europe, and citizens need and deserve respect because we are all European citizens. (…) MCV is an existing tool at the level of the European Commission. This has nothing to do with the technical criteria that Romania met for joining Schengen. There are clear provisions in the contracts,” said the PSD MEP.

For his part, Petar Vitanov, a Socialist MEP from Bulgaria, also complained about the discrimination regarding Schengen.

“This is an act of discrimination because we have fulfilled everything, there are specific technical criteria, this is the Schengen code, which says what needs to be done to be accepted into this club. And as soon as we fulfilled the criteria, subjective political criteria suddenly appear, and this is simply wrong,” said the Bulgarian MEP.

In December, the issue of Schengen expansion will be raised again at the EU Council. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, October 5, the European Parliament is debating a non-legislative resolution on the extension of Schengen at the request of European socialists.

Photo: Fred MARVO/European Parliament