Parisians advised to keep clear of Bucharest, "the Paris of the East", by The Economist Blog

The Economist Blog comments on France’s opposition against Romania’s Schengen accession in the “Let Us In” article, posted on January 19. The author of the article advises the French to avoid Romania due to this situation, as well as to the previous case of president Sarkozy’s expulsion of Romanies last summer:

“Bucharest was once known as the “Paris of the east”. But Parisians might be advised to steer clear of the Romanian capital, at least until the latest row between the French and Romanian governments blows over. Relations between the two countries have largely been smooth since Romania’s accession to the European Union in 2007. At least until last August, when Nicolas Sarkozy ordered the expulsion of Romanies illegally living in France, most of whom had Romanian citizenship. It wasn’t long until accusations of opportunism and even racism came flying France’s way”.

The article also draws attention to Romanian foreign minister’s Teodor Baconschi’s suggestion that the UE might be making discriminations towards Romania’s Schengen accession: “the Romanians are, predictably, calling foul. Earlier this week Teodor Baconschi, the foreign minister, suggested that the EU was applying “double standards” to Romania and Bulgaria and risked stoking Euroscepticism among citizens of those countries. The March deadline appears to be a lost hope, but Mr Baconschi is still hoping for accession during Hungary’s EU presidency, which ends in June.

The article also discusses Romania’s threat to “impose extra obligations on Croatia, the EU candidate country closest to accession. He (e.n. Baconschi) then said that Romania could leave the “co-operation and verification mechanism”, a set of rules on tackling corruption to which Romania and Bulgaria signed up when they joined the EU”.

As the article continues, “when it became clear that Romania was not in a position to make good on any of these threats, Traian Basescu, Romania’s president, backed down, if not entirely gracefully. Mr Baconschi said that it was “a mistake” to have turned the Schengen issue into such a big deal. But the damage had been done”.