The Romanian Centre for European Policies, a Bucharest think-tank, has monitored the work of the Romanian administration in preparing the country's accession to Schengen, planned for March 2011.
The resulting 30-page report, entitled 'Ready for Schengen? Graduates of indulgence', reveals that four out of 31 implementation measures monitored are unlikely to meet the deadline.
When Romania eventually joins Schengen, the country will have the second largest land border among the group's members (2,070 km), second only to Finland’s border with Russia. The report points out that Romania's border with Ukraine and Moldova will be one of the "most difficult" to protect with respect to combating illegal migration and trafficking.
Border controls between Romania, Hungary and Bulgaria would disappear as a consequence of the country's Schengen accession, the report warns.
Work still in progress
According to the study, work has been delayed at international airport terminals where the flows of passengers to Schengen and non-Schengen destinations must be kept separate.
The connection of police stations to the Schengen Information System (SIS) is also behind schedule. Normally, all police stations need to be connected, but thus far only premises in big cities have installed terminals. The training of policemen to use SIS as well as the adaptation of legislation is also lagging behind, the report says.
"For two or three years, nothing has been done,"says Ciprian Ciucu, author of the report. He added that the government had only recently shown a more serious commitment to meeting the requirements.
"If the mark to pass the examination is 10 [the highest in Romania's education system], it is possible that we won't pass the Schengen test," Ciucu said.
A similar situation in Bulgaria?
According to a similar evaluation by the Open Society think-tank in Bulgaria, of 48 measures to be adopted at national level, five are considered not to have been implemented or having little chance of being implemented on time.
However, the spirit of the report differs from its Romanian equivalent, and its title reads 'Bulgaria's preparation for accession to the Schengen area largely takes place within the deadlines'.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was in Sofia yesterday (11 October). Asked about her country's position with regard to Bulgaria's Schengen accession, she disappointed her hosts, saying that she would not anticipate a decision which would be taken by the 25 Schengen members next month, Dnevnik, EurActiv's partner in Bulgaria reported.
Merkel made it plain that tensions created by the presence of tens of thousands of Roma of Bulgarian and Romanian origin in countries in Western Europe was an issue unrelated to those countries' Schengen accession.
A political decision
However, Bulgaria and Romania's Schengen bids could be upset by persistent deficiencies in the law-enforcement systems in both countries.
France in particular is opposed to Romania and Bulgaria joining Schengen, as long as the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism set up to assist both countries in overcoming those deficiencies is still in place. Last September the CVM was extended for another year (see 'Background').
"It is not only the view of France. I think the implicit link made by all governments is that from the moment when the conditions required by the control mechanism are not fully met, a number of things are not feasible, including controlling the EU's external borders. Nobody opposed this view," French State Secretary for European Affairs Pierre Lellouche said on 13 September in Brussels.
The lifting of the Schengen barrier for Bulgarians and Romanians is also seen as a political measure by the countries' governments.
"For Bucharest and Sofia, the accession to the Schengen area in 2011 is mainly a political challenge, with an impact of mainly psychological nature, not economic or social," the Romanian think-tank's report says.
"The quality of life of Romanians and Bulgarians would not improve after Schengen accession, but the fact of crossing land borders without stopping your car has the potential to eliminate part of the complexes [experienced by Bulgarians and Romanians] as European citizens of a second zone," it adds.
