The March 2011 date that had been pencilled in for Bulgaria and Romania to join the European Union’s Schengen visa zone has come and gone, although recently the two countries have been advanced a few steps by European decision-makers.

However, even if Sofia and Bucharest see their hopes of Schengen accession in 2011 achieved, they may find the zone – at least temporarily – not quite as they imagined it would be.

Even as the European Parliament’s committee on civil liberties, justice and home affairs voted to approve a report that said that Bulgaria and Romania meet Schengen requirements, the committee also was expressing concern about the possibility that France could temporarily suspend Schengen standard practice to re-impose conventional border controls, and about moves by France and Italy to revise Schengen rules.
 
The vote 
Members of the European Parliament committee voted on May 2 in favour of a report by MEP Carlos Coelho saying that Bulgaria and Romania met Schengen criteria, but also voted to not specify a precise date for the two countries to join the visa zone.

"Are these two countries ready to enter Schengen? My answer is clearly yes. And this is clear in all the evaluation reports and it is clear from the visit we carried out. In some areas these two countries are even better prepared than some countries who are already Schengen members," Coelho said.

"Some of these preparations result from the circumstance that investments have been carried out recently, they now have more updated, more modern, and more effective equipment in place. And it is also because of political investment: both of these countries have invested politically in order to prove that they complied with all the Schengen criteria," he said.
 
However, the MEPs said, the European Parliament must be kept informed of additional measures to be taken in the Bulgaria-Turkey-Greece area to cope with a possible surge in migration pressure.

Coelho emphasised the need to acknowledge that illegal migration makes Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece one of the EU's most sensitive external border areas. This means Bulgaria must take some additional measures, including a special action plan to be implemented when it joins Schengen and working out a common approach with Greece and Turkey to coping with a possible surge in migration pressure.

The committee inserted an amendment asking that the member states concerned inform the European Parliament and the Council, in writing in the course of a six-month period beginning on the date of entry into force of the integration decision, on any shortcomings and the implementation of these additional measures.

"It is essential to bear in mind that the removal of controls at internal borders requires a high degree of mutual trust among member states in the existence of effective controls on the external borders, because the security of the Schengen area depends on the rigour and efficiency with which each member state carries out checks at its external borders", says the rapporteur.

The European Parliament will vote in June on Schengen membership for Bulgaria and Romania, and the final decision will be for the European Council of Ministers.
 
The opinion on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area should be put to a vote by Parliament as a whole at the 6-9 June plenary session, before the Justice and Home Affairs Council of 9-10 June, which is to discuss the issue.

The integration decision should be made by the Council, by unanimous decision of all governments of the states which already belong to the Schengen area.

The Hungarian Presidency of the European Council has said that it will continue to work towards a solution acceptable to all parties concerned, taking into account the concerns voiced by some member states.
 
 
Insistence 
Ahead of the European Parliament committee vote, Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov said the Bulgarian Government and the Interior Ministry had done all that was required, and now Bulgaria was in the hands of EU politicians and EU member states who had to take a political decision on Schengen membership.

He continued to hope that Bulgaria and Romania would join in 2011.

Romanian president Traian Basescu said on May 3 that he was optimistic about the country’s Schengen entry in 2011, adding that accession to Schengen was not a failed objective for the country, Romanian Mediafax news agency reported.

"Romania's objective is to join the Schengen area in 2011. It's true we were aiming for spring, but the goal has not been missed. I refuse to accept the idea of Romania not joining the Schengen area," Basescu said.

He said that he was confident Romania would join Schengen. The only reason that it had not joined so far was that Bulgaria lagged behind, he said.

Speaking about France and Italy's plans to have the Schengen Treaty revised, Basescu said he agrees Schengen entry rules could use improvement, but after Romania and Bulgaria join the area.

"Schengen rules need consolidation to fight not only drug trafficking but also to restrict illegal immigration. But our stance is: if Romania and Bulgaria are ready to join, we can change these rules afterwards," he said.
 
Concern
The European Commission's announcement that it is considering a temporary reintroduction of checks at the EU's internal borders, at the request of Italy and France, prompted European Parliament civil liberties committee MEPs to say that Schengen must not be weakened and that all internal border checks should be strictly justified.

"Schengen governance is suffering too much from inter-governmentalism," the European Commission representative told the committee, adding that the Commission would table a communication on the issue on May 4.

The Commission paper will seek to "replace the unilateral re-introduction of border controls by a Community mechanism". This would enable the Commission temporarily to impose checks at national borders, in exceptional circumstances and as a last resort.

"Schengen should not be weakened," Coelho said, asking for "some caution" on this issue. "Schengen is free movement and, like the euro, is one of the symbols of Europe", he underlined.Coelho said that "we should have a European approach" and said that these issues should be discussed in the context of the new Schengen evaluation system.

The Commission has presented a proposal to introduce a Community system to evaluate the application of Schengen rules. This draft law is being discussed by civil liberties committee MEPs.

Checks? 
"Is it physically possible to reintroduce border checks? How will this be done?", Dutch liberal MEP Sophia in't Veld said, evoking the possibility of huge traffic jams at the border betweenGermany and the Netherlands.

She said that the number of requests for temporary re-introduction of border checks is rising and wondered whether these requests are justified. "I am not sure that peer review really works,"she said.

Social democrat MEP Claude Moraes of the UK said that the European Council should move forward with  proposed asylum and migration legislation, overcoming its past "narrow majorities" and  "blockages" in these fields. "We asked for [the activation of] the temporary protection [directive]", he said, asking whether the Commission would say again that there is no majority in Council to use it.

"This is not a Schengen problem, this is a social problem" to do with migration, German social democrat MEP Birgit Sippel said, adding that "I am bothered about the timing" of these requests by French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.

The "Council is not willing to deal with migration," said Dutch Greens MEP Judith Sargentini. Concerning the reintroduction of border controls, she called for a clear definition of "temporary".
German Greens MEP Franziska Keller asked "Which are the specific cases and who decides what is an emergency or not?" and "Who will take the decision to cut visa liberalisation?"