Travelers line up to get their passports at Stockholm’s Arlanda Airport. [Henrik Montgomery/EPA]
The European Parliament suggested on Tuesday (October 18) to Schengen member states to allow Romania and Bulgaria to register in the EU’s free-moving domain without further delay.
MEPs rejected proposals through the Greens and Irish far-left MEP Claire Daly to include in the solution a reference to violations of migrants’ rights at the borders of Bulgaria and Romania, as well as cases of pushbacks at borders. It was also rejected that the government take further steps to guarantee basic rights.
Currently, while Croatia is about to join the Schengen domain, the only EU member states left outside the Union’s borderless zone are Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Ireland. The Schengen domain also includes non-EU states Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.
European Union governments agreed on Thursday (Dec. 9) that Croatia would register in the bloc’s passport-free Schengen zone after Zagreb convinced Brussels it could manage its segment of the bloc’s external borders well.
Already in 2011, the European Parliament declared that Romania and Bulgaria were preparing to join the Schengen area. The Commission also said a long time ago that either country met the technical criteria, but since the resolution to welcome new members unanimously to the Council was taken, there was one member who opposed the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, in particular the Netherlands.
The Czech presidency of the Council of the EU has already said that it will try to achieve unanimity in the candidacies of Sofia and Bucharest by putting the factor to a vote at the assembly of EU interior ministers in December and at the EU summit in December in the coming days.
Several Schengen member states last week sent inspectors to Bulgaria and Romania to assess their progress. The effects of the inspections will be discussed on 26 October.
[Edited via Nathalie Weatherald]