The European Commission is threatening action against Schengen countries that maintain border controls in the free movement zone and is demanding that Romania and Bulgaria be allowed to join.

The European Commission published a second report on Schengen on Tuesday, which Agerpres reported said it was considering a “formal consultation process” on internal border controls that some member states support in the free space. It also warns of action against them in the absence of a “commitment to change” this policy.

The document, which looks at the situation with the free movement area over the past year, lists good practices as well as outstanding “challenges” and areas for action that Brussels considers to be priorities.

Among these priorities is the “phasing out of long-term internal border control” and its replacement with “alternative measures of police cooperation”.

In Brussels, they remind that the re-introduction of controls inside the Schengen borders “must be exceptional, limited in time and a measure of last resort”.

Because of illegal migrants, six EU member states currently practice such controls, namely France, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Slovakia and Sweden, as well as Norway and Iceland, non-EU but Schengen countries.

In a report published on Tuesday, the Commission mentions that it will launch “a formal process of consultation with all Member States concerned” and warns that it is “ready to resort to the legal measures at its disposal if these consultations do not lead to commitments”. unchanged”.

Other priorities identified in the report include strengthening external borders, improving the efficiency of the system of repatriation of illegal migrants and strengthening the Schengen administration, so recommendations will be issued for each country.

Accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen at the request of the European Commission

The Commission is also asking the Council (which brings together the EU countries) to allow Bulgaria and Romania to join the Schengen zone and to strengthen the internal security of this free movement zone in order to fight organized crime and drug trafficking.

The Commission also considers it a priority to better use the visa lever to solve the problem of illegal migration and align the visa policy of non-EU European states with the policy practiced by the EU bloc.

The next Schengen Council, which will be held on June 8, “will be an opportunity for ministers to support the identified political priorities,” the European Commission said, calling in this context on Sweden and Spain, the countries holding the current and next six-month EU Council presidencies, “to monitor according to the achievement of priorities and proposed actions”.

Austria does not give up

Romania’s accession to Schengen was blocked by Austria at the JAI Council in December.

Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner did not budge even after his visit to Bucharest at the end of April. He told Romanians that he was “very sympathetic” to their expectations that the authorities had made progress in securing borders and managing migration, but that there was still a “long way to go”.

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.