Bulgarian lawmakers of the European parliament have launched an appeal to Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte to let their country, as well as Romania and Croatia, join the Schengen area starting next year.
EU citizens and residents can travel without border checks in the countries in the Schengen zone. All EU member states, except Bulgaria, Romania, Croatia and Cyprus are part of the Schengen area.
It also includes Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein which are not EU members.
Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union in 2007 and since 2011, the European parliament has given the green light for its Schengen accession through several resolutions.
In a vote in October, MEPs said that maintaining internal border controls for Romania and Bulgaria is ‘discriminatory’ and has a ‘serious impact on the lives of mobile workers and citizens.’
However, days later, however, a majority of Dutch lawmakers voted in favor of a motion asking their government not to take any ‘irreversible steps’ to admit Romania and Bulgaria until further investigation had been carried out into corruption and organized crime.
The final decision on the Schengen accession must be made by EU governments unanimously.
Bulgarian MEPs from all political parties wrote to Mark Rutte on Thursday asking him to abandon his opposition. ‘The 11-year unprecedented and groundless blocking of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area by the Council of the EU, and in particular by the Netherlands, must end,’ they said.
All Bulgarian MEPs appealed today to the Dutch government to take into account the assessment of the @EU_Commission & the resolutions of the @Europarl_EN so that the process of expanding the Schengen area continues with the accession of Bulgaria & Romania by the end of this year. pic.twitter.com/cjgZVvjZpp
— Andrey Novakov (@AndreyNovakov) November 10, 2022
‘If Mark Rutte’s party changes its position, there is no longer a majority in the Dutch parliament for blocking the Schengen accession,’ he added. Dutch MEP Sophia in’t Veld, from D66, said on Bulgarian national television that the government is blocking the decision ‘for domestic policy reasons’ and she is hoping it will ‘change its opinion.
The issue will be discussed at the EU justice ministers’ meeting on 8-9 December.
