“[Bulgaria and Romania] do fulfill the technical requirements for joining, but we don’t have complete confidence that these countries will be able to secure outer EU borders because of corruption, among other issues,” Finnish interior minister Paivi Rasanen told YLE News.
The Dutch and Finnish parliaments were clear that they would not support Schengen expansion even as part of a phased-in compromise that would open air and seaports in the travel area now and postponing a decision on incorporating land borders until 2012. The compromise is being advocated by EU presidency holder Poland, an ardent supporter of expansion.
Poland has been pushing fellow EU members to approve full membership for Romania and Bulgaria, because the countries have technically met the benchmarks required by the EU for admission.
Bulgarian and Romanian officials are adamant that they have fulfilled all necessary criteria, saying that the Netherlands’ veto is more a reflection of its domestic politics than issues in the two Eastern European countries.
Last week, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov told journalists that the Dutch opposition was “clearly linked to internal political differences within the ruling coalition in the Netherlands.”
Romanian President Traian Basescu on Wednesday asked the Dutch not to “sacrifice” European integration “to satisfy extremists.”
The Schengen zone currently has 25 members. Admission requires unanimous approval by 22 EU states. Norway, Iceland and Switzerland are members of Schengen but not the EU, and have no voting rights).
The European Commission has proposed that the EU take control of managing its external borders so as not to put undue stress on the border police forces of individual member countries. The proposal would require individual countries to agree to transfer responsibility to the EU border control.
The proposal is partially intended to help Bulgaria and Romania’s entry to Schengen by strengthening their border service and removing some of the strain. France, Germany, and Spain oppose the proposition, citing sovereignty and national security.
Bulgaria has said their country will reconsider unrelated proposals for EU-wide Schengen reform until it is admitted.
The subject will be raised for the next time at an EU summit on October 17.
