Two Bulgarian ministers are visiting the Netherlands in an attempt to achieve a political breakthrough on the subject of Bulgaria’s membership in the Schengen area.
Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev and Foreign Minister Nikolay Milkov are visiting the Hague and are having separate meetings on Monday and Tuesday. The Netherlands is one of the countries that oppose and veto Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen.
The accession of Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia to Schengen will be voted on at the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council around 8-9 December and for each country to ascend, the vote must be unanimous.
Bulgaria and Romania fulfil the criteria for membership, and the Parliament gave its approval for accession in June 2011, but consensus between countries has been hard to come by.
The Netherlands, Sweden, and Austria are sceptical that Bulgaria and Romania can properly guard the EU’s external border because of a failure to tackle corruption and organised crime.
Pressure from the Netherlands and increasing support from Sweden are speeding up the process of separating Bulgaria and Romania for Schengen membership, EURACTIV Bulgaria has learned from its sources in the European institutions. It seems increasingly likely that in early December, EU leaders will support the admission of Croatia and Romania and that Bulgaria will remain on the sidelines, which would be a huge political humiliation.
On 18 October, the Parliament once again called for the admission of Bulgaria and Romania, underlining that free movement is the basis of the European project.
(Antonia Kotseva | EURACTIV.bg)
Source: euractiv.com
