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No to passport-free travel for Bulgaria, Romania
Published: 3 Mar 13 18:25 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.de/national/20130303-48303.html
Germany will veto Romania and Bulgaria joining the Schengen passport-free zone if the two countries push their membership at an EU meeting this week, German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich warned on Sunday.
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The option of clearing just certain areas, such as entry by air or port, was also off the table, he said. EU justice and interior ministers are due to meet to discuss the issue on Thursday.
While the EU's last yearly report had noted progress by Romania and Bulgaria in their efforts to join Europe's 26-nation Schengen passport-free travel zone, Friedrich said both countries must act "more decidedly" against
corruption.
"The expansion of the Schengen zone is only accepted by our citizens if the basic requirements are ensured. That is currently not the case," he said.
The minister also called for stricter sanctions for anyone who tried to cheat a country's social security system by abusing the right to the free movement of people under the pact.
Any move to expand the Schengen area, home to 400 million Europeans who can cross borders without a passport, needs a unanimous vote, but the Netherlands has in the past staunchly opposed including Romania and Bulgaria.
Romanian Prime Minister Victor Ponta said Saturday that his country's membership of Schengen was no longer a priority for his government if the issue was again pushed back at the EU ministers' meeting this week.
"The government has done everything it could so that the decision... is positive and I still have hopes for that," Ponta told the Mediafax agency.
AFP/jlb
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Your comments about this article:
On a serious note, it is only cheap populism. Both CDU and SPD try to win votes by showing they "protect" the population against the Romanians and Bulgarians (actually they mean Gipsies from that countries, but then that does not sound correct), that will "invade" Germany. On Friday's talk show on this subject, ZDF presented ridiculous figures (for example, that there are 10 million Gypsies in Europe and that 90% of them are in Romania). For a moment, I thought Goebbels came back from the dead. But then I realised it is just plain ignorance.
Schengen can prevent only the coming of those Gypsies that are too stubborn to get a national ID. The ones that wanted to come to Germany are already here. So Romania and Bulgaria joining Schengen will not change a thing.
To speak about corruption when the SPD's candidate for chancellorship is paid commissions by the firms he had given governmental contracts only shows hypocrisy. In the last couple of years, (former) high governmental figures from all parties in Romania were prosecuted and, when found guilty of corruption, were thrown in jail, even if they were former prime ministers. So it actually might be that the justice system works better as in Germany when it comes to punishing corruption.
Voting against Romania and Bulgaria has little to do with securing borders. It is about generating fear and securing votes for the upcoming elections.
turkey has Economy of $ 1.3 trillions, bring turkey in EU. More money for EU.
Romania and Bulgaria are already in the EU since 2007. And I would not complain about their economies, as Romania is the 11th largest economy of EU (8th based on PPP) out of 27 economies and Bulgaria has a one of the stablest currency in the region. Also, quite important, with severe austerity measures, they managed to keep their public debt at levels of which Germany, UK and Co. could only dream of.
As far as I know, In Bulgaria and Romania, just like in Germany, a person is required to have his/her ID or passport all the time. So they have it. It's not like they need a visa.
Basically , Bulgarians and Romanians are allowed to go anywhere , as logn as they have an ID. Duh! Does anybody travel to another country without an ID?
Also, looking at the map, they can drive to Germany through Hungary. Does everybody stop at the Hungarian border to show his documents? Do they stop just the Bulgarians and Romanians based on the license plate registration of the vehicle? What happens if they travel with rented vehicles with a registration from another country?
You are mainly correct. There is no visa requirement for Romanians and Bulgarians, so we are not talking about capital issues here.
It is only about easing the formalities. Yes, everybody is required to stop at the Hungarian border to show documents, even if it is about a car with German numbers. And sometimes that could mean hours of waiting at the border.
as are rising numbers of citizens, who are beginning to see through the smoke and mirrors.This view is supported by the substantial rise in east
european criminality reported by many uk police forces.
Surely politicians are there to represent the views of the electorate. Not as the they do now and just disregard them.
1. Nobody gets welfare the minute they first arrive in Germany. At least I didn't 5 years ago and I'm Irish and paid into the Irish (EU) welfare system.
2. The criminals are already there. There is no travel restriction within the EU and the borders are wide open anyway. Just sneak through the forest and you're through.
3. The losers here are the Romanians and Bulgarians who genuinely want to work and pay taxes. Isn't Germany short of workers at the moment?
4. As for not being ready, look at the screwed up economies of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia among others that the press doesn't want to talk about. Corruption is rife in those countries at levels that would give the CSU and FDP wet dreams. Hungary elected a neo-nazi government recently and the EU was just fine and dandy with that.