Franco-German Schengen delay threat angers Bucharest

Romania has hit back at Paris and Berlin, which has pressured the European Commission to add political criteria to the technical qualifications which allow Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen area of free movement

February 2011 - From the Print Edition

French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux and German counterpart Thomas de Maiziere wrote to European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstroem at end-December, stating the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in Schengen in March 2011 would bring “Grave consequences for internal security in the EU and for every member state”.
In the leaked letter, obtained by Radio France International, the pair asked for a delay in allowing Romania to enter the Schengen zone.
The attack on the two member states′ preparedness embarrassed Romania′s President Traian Basescu, who declared last year that his foreign policy objective number one was for Romania to enter the Schengen zone by April 2011.
The Romanian Head of State called the letter an “act of discrimination”.
Basescu hit back by threatening to renounce the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), a tool which the European Commission (EC) uses to monitor Romania′s record in anti-corruption and judicial reform.
He also threatened to dump the deal with French-German defence and aerospace company EADS, which was due to receive 271 million Euro in 2011 for helping to secure Romania′s borders for Schengen readiness.
France and Germany have both profited from Romania′s choice to join the Schengen zone over the last six years.
In 2004, EADS signed a long-term contract worth over one billion Euro with the Romanian Ministry of Administration and Internal Affairs to provide an integrated solution for border surveillance and security – a necessary component for Romania′s European integration ambitions.
The letter followed France′s 2010 deportation from its borders of Bulgarian and Romanian Roma back to their home country in mid-2010 – a move which civil society condemned as illegal.
France and Germany′s foreign ministers stated that Bulgaria and Romania′s entry into the Schengen space was premature because of the two nations′ failure to make progress in the fight against corruption and organised crime.
The letter allegedly cited an absence of a judicial and administrative environment in the domains of security and justice, the phenomenon of corruption at different levels and the persistence of organised crime as concerns.
Bucharest hit back accusing Paris and Berlin of making up new rules for countries to enter the Schengen space, because the criteria should be based only on the technical capacity of the country – which Romania has fulfilled.
The letter allegedly points out that, technically, Romania and Bulgaria have prepared intensely for the accession process.
“We want Romania to enter with same criteria applied to previous states,” said Romanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodor Baconschi. “We demand fairness.”
The delay should be until the countries make “irreversible progress” in the fight against corruption, organised crime and the reform of the judicial system, the letter reportedly stated.
However, in the pre-EU accession criteria, at the behest of Brussels, Bulgaria and Romania were forced to ensure their judiciary was granted independence of Government interference. In Romania′s case, it established the autonomous Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM).
The US also allegedly is concerned about the progress of reform in Romania. A Wikileak cable from the US Embassy in Sofia from June 2009 labelled Bulgaria′s reform efforts “lame and insincere”. The released cable stated that Brussels was feeling “buyers remorse [sic]” at allowing Romania and Bulgaria into the political bloc too early.
Many observers see this is a European attempt to ′claw-back′ the decision to allow Bulgaria and Romania into the bloc too early. They also see this letter as an attempt by the right-wing Governments of France and Germany to appease the anti-Romanian and anti-Bulgarian prejudices of their rank and file.
In order to gain access to the Schengen space, Romania and Bulgaria will need the unanimous backing of 22 EU states, plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.