Romania’s Schengen accession still in limbo

With the European Council agreeing that Romania and Bulgaria are technically ready to join the Schengen area, the prime minister, Victor Ponta, said that elections in several EU countries may prevent a final decision on the issue before 2014.

A European Commission spokesperson said the two countries had not been given a clear timeframe on accession, although they meet the technical requirements.

The PM said that the European Commission and most countries knew that Romania was eligible for Schengen and that intense lobbying from the top political brass was necessary to get the decision through.

“Romania is ready to join Schengen. Probably, though, elections in certain countries will constitute issues in our accession to Schengen,” said the PM.

The Schengen debate was reignited last week when the European Commission published a new report outlining Romania’s progress under the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM). The report assessed the reforms of the judiciary in the last six months and the anti-corruption measures implemented by Romanian institutions.

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The progress made on the CVM does not influence the decision on Schengen, as they have different criteria, according to a commission spokesperson.

The assessment states that Romania has implemented some of the commission’s recommendations aiming to restore the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary.

“Commitments regarding the protection of the judiciary against attacks, the stepping down of ministers with integrity rulings against them and the resignation of members of Parliament with final decisions on incompatibility and conflict of interest, or with final convictions for high-level corruption, have not been fully implemented,” said the report.

The PM said that he had dismissed the ministers that had been the subject of complaints from the National Integrity Agency (ANI), but he had failed to indentify the three ministers that had been investigated on corruption charges. Inthe meantime, the Commission cut the number of the minsiters to two.

“I understand that Relu Fenechiu, the transport minister, has been indicted for complicity in abuse of office, but I didn’t find the other two,” said the PM. “The good news is that the concrete things done by the government are reflected there as being fulfilled.”

Last summer Ponta was summoned by top European officials over the impeachment of President Traian Basescu. European Commissioner Jose Manuel Barroso gave him a to-do list comprising 11 points on the independence of the judiciary and the rule of law.

Ovidiu Posirca