/ world today news/ The decision on the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen will be postponed again and will not be discussed this week by the EU interior ministers. This was confirmed to BNR by European sources.
Our government has repeatedly expressed hope that at the regular meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council on October 8 and 9, a decision on partial accession to the European area without internal borders will be voted on. However, the issues with refugees and border control are on the agenda. The expansion of the Schengen zone was not included as an item on the agenda of the ministers of interior affairs, representatives from the Luxembourg rotating presidency of the Council confirmed for BNR.
At one of the last meetings at the level of ambassadors in the EU, no consensus was reached on this. Among the reasons are the busy agenda of measures to protect external borders and deal with the refugee crisis, which will be discussed in Luxembourg on Thursday and Friday.
The expectations of the Bulgarian government were for a political decision in October for the gradual elimination of Schengen air borders for the Bulgarian side. The Prime Minister of Romania, however, told the Parliament in Bucharest yesterday that he had also requested the postponement. Later, quoted by the Romanian television, Victor Ponta called for no illusions and even predicted that the Schengen membership will be postponed in 2016 as well:
Do you believe that under the presidency of the Netherlands, the EU will vote for the extension of Schengen? I doubt it, especially since the Dutch always said they were against it. The Netherlands tied its veto to positive results in EC reports on justice and home affairs reforms. The country will be the rotating chairman of the meetings of the interior ministers from January to June next year. However, she was not the only one to request a postponement of the matter this week, the Luxembourg sources added. Representatives of several other European capitals have expressed reservations. According to the program, the next regular meeting at which the membership of Bulgaria and Romania in Schengen could be formally discussed is in December.
#delaying #admission #Bulgaria #Romania #Schengen
