Spain’s Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, has expressed his hopes that Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Zone will be finalised in December this year.
Emphasising that the membership of both of these countries to Schengen is among the main priorities of Spain, which holds the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, Grande-Malraska said that Madrid is going to do the best it can so an agreement could be reached during the next JHA meeting scheduled to take place on December 5 and 6, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
I’m sure it’s going to be possible. We’re going to do (our) best for December to get an agreement. We’re trying to reach that agreement, and I cross my fingers, but we’re working very hard on it.
In spite of meeting all the needed conditions since 2011, as estimated by the European Commission, including sharing of information, border management and police cooperation, such process still needs to be finished.
On December 8, last year, EU Interior Ministers agreed to accept Croatia to the visa-free travel zone, but not Romania and Bulgaria. The admission of these two countries was blocked by Austria and the Netherlands over irregular migration concerns.
Authorities in Bucharest and Sofia have intensified efforts to prevent irregular migrants from reaching these countries, who then head to other EU states.
Statistics from News.to show that 758 people subject to Schengen Information System Alerts have been detected by police officers in Romania for a period between October 13 and 19.
Expressing his hopes for Schengen Entry with Romania, in December this year, Bulgaria’s Minister of Internal Affairs, Kalin Stoianov, also confirmed that his country tightened efforts to halt irregular migration.
According to him, 160,000 irregular border crossing attempts have been prevented by authorities in Sofia since the beginning of this year, compared to 100,000 recorded in the same period last year.
However, recently, the Dutch Migration Minister, Eric Can der Burg, said that the Netherlands will not remove its veto when it comes to Bulgaria’s accession to a passport-free zone, according to a report from Sofia News Agency, Novinite.
Austria’s position also remains unchanged, as confirmed previously to SchengenVisaInfo.com. The Ministry of the Interior of Austria previously told SchengenVisaInfo.com that as long as the Schengen system is not working, there is no point in further extending it.
Earlier this month, the Prime Minister of Romania, Marcel Ciolacu, warned that if Vienna opposes Romania’s accession to the Schengen Zone in December this year, Bucharest has the right to challenge the decision at the European Court of Justice (EJC).