Romania and Bulgaria: accession to Schengen a hot issue

The French Ambassador in Romania gave an interview for a local Romanian newspaper, where he admitted that the accession of Romania into the Schengen zone has become a difficult topic for all member states of the Schengen agreement. Mr. Philippe Gyusten in his role as a French Ambassador said that a technical subject as the Schengen basically is has turned into a political one. According to the Ambassador of France, the Schengen accession of Bulgaria and Romania can advance this year as it will not have a political context or an election context.

There are several stages during which Romania and Bulgaria can become members of the Schengen travel free zone. In fact Romania and Bulgaria have hoped to become members of the Schengen agreement since March 2011. At that time the two countries received several negative reports concerning the Cooperation and Verification and their efforts to enter the visa free zone of Schengen were postponed. Several countries, including France and Germany, as well as the Netherlands think that the two new member states will not be in position to keep their external borders save.