Officials say Romania will be ready to join the EU's borderless Schengen area in March, but political issues might delay accession. "From a technical point of view, we will be ready to join the Schengen area in March 2011," the country's Justice Minister Catalin Predoiu said earlier this week. “On the other hand, we are aware that some European countries still say Romania has problems with corruption and delays in reforming the justice system,” he added.
Predoiu’s statement followed a visit this week of an EU expert team which inspected two airports and two border crossing points as part of an assessment of Bucharest’s bid to join the zone of 25 countries within which people can travel without passport border checks. Romanian officials are optimistic that EU will not block Romania’s accession to the Schengen area once technical criteria are met. “We are confident, given the steps we have taken to attain this goal," representatives of the national airport company said in a press release. “Accession to Schengen is a technical issue and we meet all the requirements." Both Romanian President Traian Basescu and Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi also said recently that accession depends mainly on technical criteria, which can be fully met in due time.
Voices inside the EU, however, are much more critical, as mainly France and the Netherlands insist on linking the entry date to progress in judicial reform. Last Wednesday, French Secretary of State for European Affairs, Pierre Lellouche, urged EU members to hold off on their decision to let Romania and Bulgaria join the Schengen area. Bucharest's Schengen accession should not be decided until new reports are published, and not in March 2011 as initially planned, Lellouche urged.
Another EU mission - the last one before the EU is expected to decide on Bucharest's candidacy - is to come to Romania next month. The visit will focus on the implementation of the Schengen Information System (SIS), the security database for Europe's border-free zone that allows police in member states to exchange information in their fight against organised crime and illegal immigration.
News source: BalkanInsight link: article
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