Block on border-free travel for Romania and Bulgaria

Interior ministers of France and Germany say east European states not ready for border-free travel.

France and Germany have signalled their intention to delay Romania and Bulgaria’s entry into the Schengen area of  border-free travel.

The two eastern European countries had hoped to be admitted to the Schengen area in March, but interior ministers in Paris and Berlin said that would be “premature”.

They cited concerns about corruption and organised crime in the countries as well as security worries at the EU’s external borders.

In a letter to Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, Thomas de Maizière, German’s interior minister, and Brice Hortefeux, his counterpart in France, said that they believed Romania and Bulgaria had not met all conditions for admission to the Schengen area.

They said that the two countries had not yet shown that they had made “irreversible progress” in the fight against corruption and organised crime. They also urged further reform of  the countries’ judicial systems.

Technical experts from the member states and the European Commission are currently preparing a report on the two countries’ readiness for Schengen membership. Interior ministers will consider their report early in 2011 – they meet informally on 19-20 January and formally on 24-25 February. The unanimous support of the other governments is needed, so it is now likely that Bulgaria and Romania’s accession will be postponed.

Speaking on Romanian television, Traian Bǎsescu, the country’s president, said: “We won’t accept discrimination from anyone, not even from the most powerful members of the European Union.”

The Schengen area, which began in 1995, now comprises 25 countries – all the members of the EU except Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus, the UK and Ireland, plus three non-EU countries, Norway, Switzerland and Iceland.