EU Germany and France have jointly vetoed EU Romania & Bulgaria from joining the Schengen – Europe’s border and visa free area – next year.
The governments of both France & Germany have let it been know that both Bulgaria and Romania do not yet meet requirements for the borderless visa-free travel zone in the EU because both needed to do more to tackle corruption.
The interior ministers of the two larger members said jointly from both Berlin and Paris it was “premature” at this time to let the countries join Schengen – that is in March 2011 when they were scheduled to join it.
They presented both lack of progress in reforming their judiciary as well as tackling corruption and organized crime as the main reasons for their decision.
The Schengen protocol allows about 400 million Europeans to travel freely without a passport through 22 of the European Union 27 countries plus Iceland, Switzerland and Norway.
Romania and Bulgaria joined the EU in 2007 and both EU members ,the UK and Ireland, chose not to join Schengen.
Most OTA-Berlin serviced apartment guests are from the EU and arrive in Berlin using the Schengen options which mean they cross the border into Germany without any checking of documents – either at airports or at highway borders.
EU Germany + France have jointly vetoed EU Romania + Bulgaria from Schengen – for the time being from OTA Berlin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Germany License. If you use this article or parts of it, please refer to http://www.ota-berlin.de.
Tags: Bulgaria / Romania Schengen, Germany and France have jointly vetoed Romania + Bulgaria, Romania + Bulgaria from Schengen, schengen
