Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-07-Speech-2-310-000"
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"en.20110607.25.2-310-000"2
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"Madam President, Mrs Győri, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to make six brief points. Firstly, on strengthening Schengen: the free movement of people is one of the greatest successes and achievements of the EU, and Schengen is one of the Union’s major pillars. We are therefore among those who believe that it should not be weakened, but rather preserved and strengthened. I agree with the remarks that Commissioner Malmström made to this effect a little while ago.
The five original Member States have given way to the current 25: 22 within the Union, and three outside it. Free movement is thus guaranteed within a territory of almost 43 000 km of external maritime borders and more than 7 700 km of land borders, covering 25 countries and 400 million people.
Secondly, on mutual trust: the abolition of internal border controls requires a high level of mutual trust between the Member States. There needs to be a rapid and adequate exchange of information through the Schengen Information System (SIS), good police cooperation and effective controls in place at the external borders. The security of the Schengen area depends on the rigour and efficiency with which each Member State carries out checks at its external borders. If this does not happen, the security of the Schengen area is weakened, the credibility of the European Union is undermined and mutual trust is destroyed.
Thirdly, on equal rules: there should also be trust in the procedures, which must be clear and fair. Candidate countries must be able to implement and enforce all the Schengen criteria effectively and correctly: the same criteria that were demanded of previous candidate countries; no more, no less.
Fourthly, on transparency: we need to ensure greater transparency, in the interests of both freedom and security. I regret that, once again, the Council has not acted as it should in relation to Parliament, denying Members of this House access to the evaluation reports. The problem could only be overcome thanks to the diligence of the ambassadors of Romania and Bulgaria, who requested the declassification of the reports and their submission to Parliament, so enabling Members of this House to have access to the content of the evaluations, recommendations and final conclusions. Unfortunately, the Council has failed to respect Parliament once again. This very transparency is needed to address the outstanding problems that have been pointed out, as although these are not an obstacle to the two countries’ full membership of Schengen, they should be subject to monitoring by the evaluation committee so as to verify that the recommendations have been acted upon, along with any changes that are still ongoing. Parliament demands access to this information.
Fifthly, on European citizenship: how often do we invoke the value of European citizenship during our speeches? Since their accession to the EU, in 2007, both Bulgaria and Romania have had a legitimate expectation that their citizens would become fully fledged EU citizens and that they would be able to enjoy the same rights as other EU citizens, including freedom of movement within the Schengen area. This is the European citizenship that we are strengthening by extending the Schengen area.
My sixth and final point is that they have worked hard. It is clear that both countries are to be congratulated on the efforts they have made towards meeting all the requirements of Schengen. This is clear in the evaluation reports and in subsequent observations by the expert missions that made the evaluation. It was also clear during the mission that we made to Bulgaria and Romania, and for this I would like to thank my fellow Romanian Members, Mr Marinescu, Mr Enciu and Mrs Weber, and my fellow Bulgarian Members, Mr Kovatchev and Mrs Nedelcheva. We are therefore able to welcome Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area, and I hope that the Council will adopt the same position as soon as it receives our positive opinion."@en1
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