Decisive vote regarding Romania’s accession to the Schengen area. Negrescu: “I expect an overwhelming vote in our favor”

The MEPs will vote today, in Strasbourg, on the resolution supporting the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area, starting next year.

The non-legislative resolution proposal submitted by six political groups in the European Parliament – EPP, S&D, Renew, Greens, ECR and Left – urges the Council to take all the necessary measures to adopt its decision on the full application of the provisions of the Schengen acquis in Bulgaria and in Romania until the end of 2022, thus ensuring the elimination of controls on persons at all internal borders for both states at the beginning of 2023.

The European Parliament “recalls that all the necessary conditions for the full application of the Schengen acquis in Romania and Bulgaria were already fulfilled by both member states in 2011”, indicates the quoted draft resolution.

In the document, the EP reaffirms its long-standing position, as expressed in its resolution of 11 December 2018, in support of the full application of the Schengen acquis in Bulgaria and Romania and declares itself discouraged by the fact that, in the last 11 years, The Council failed to adopt a decision regarding the full application of the Schengen acquis in Bulgaria and Romania, despite repeated appeals in this regard, both from the European Commission and the European Parliament, according to Agerpres.

Also, in the proposed resolution, the EP welcomes the “availability of Romania and Bulgaria to voluntarily host an information mission, which is an expression of the principle of loyal cooperation and mutual trust on the part of these states, although they have already met all the requirements legal and there are no grounds for additional evaluations”.

Among the MEPs who submitted this resolution proposal are Cristian Buşoi, Daniel Buda, Dan Motreanu, Eugen Tomac, Gheorghe Falcă, Lorant Vincze, Marian-Jean Marinescu, Mircea Hava, Siegfried Mureşan, Traian Băsescu, Vlad Nistor, Vasile Blaga, Rareş Bogdan, Iuliu Winkler (PPE group), Dan Nica (S&D group), Dacian Cioloş, Vlad Gheorghe, Alin Mituţa, Dragoş Pîslaru, Nicolae Ştefănuţă, Ramona Strugariu, Dragoş Tudorache, Vlad Marius Botoş (Renew group) and Cristian Terheş (ECR group ).

A proposed resolution was submitted separately by MEPs Jean Paul Garraud (France) and Nicolaus Fest (Germany) on behalf of the Identity and Democracy (ID) group. The document expresses the opposition to future extensions of the Schengen area, unless the protection of the Union’s external borders is also strengthened accordingly.

“Through this approach, the European Parliament shows once again that its support for Romania is consistent and constant. Together with my colleagues from the Social Democratic Party and PES activists Romania, I have continuously campaigned, in recent years, for Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, and the support offered by over 40,000 Romanians, within the Romanians Deserve In Schengen campaign, indicates that this objective must be met as soon as possible as soon as possible”, said PSD MEP Victor Negrescu, according to News.ro

“I expect an overwhelming vote in favor of Romania in a few hours, the group of extremists being the only political group that did not support the resolution and that seeks, as they did in the plenary, to block our country’s accession to the Schengen area. It would be good for those in the country who ally themselves with such formations to publicly explain why they want to block the Romanians”, Negrescu says.

The draft resolution of the ID group recalls that Member States retain sovereignty over border management and expresses concern about the extension of the Schengen area to include two Member States located along the eastern borders of the Union, considering this to be against the interests of the other Member States in the Schengen area. In the same proposal, the member states, the Council and the European Commission are also requested to condition this expansion on the simultaneous consolidation of the staff and resources dedicated to the protection of the Union’s external borders.