Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-06-07-Speech-2-312-000"
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"en.20110607.25.2-312-000"2
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"Mr President, I am particularly glad of the opportunity to participate on behalf of the Council in the debate on the extension of the Schengen area to Bulgaria and Romania.
However, the Hungarian Presidency looked, right at the beginning of its term, for an immediate solution in order not to delay the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area. In that context, it was at the proposal of the Hungarian Presidency that the Council gave its assent so that Parliament could have access to documents pertinent to the accession of the two Member States to the Schengen area.
All in all, the Hungarian Presidency is convinced that the enlargement of the Schengen area to include Bulgaria and Romania, now that they meet all the technical and legal criteria, would be beneficial for the entire Schengen cooperation and for Europe as a whole, where one could travel from the Black Sea to the Atlantic without being stopped to show a passport or identity card. We all know that this free movement is one of the fundamentals of our European Union – something which is really tangible for our citizens and something of value which we all have to safeguard.
This has been a consistently high priority for the Hungarian Presidency. I am therefore especially pleased that by now, both Bulgaria and Romania have received positive evaluation of their technical preparedness to apply the entirety of the Schengen acquis. We welcome the fact that the assessment by this Parliament has also led to similar conclusions. I particularly commend the work of the rapporteur, Carlos Coelho, for his professional and personal dedication.
For a moment, allow me to deviate from the protocol for the sake of a historic reference. When the accession of Hungary and other new Member States from Central Europe to Schengen was hampered by a technical difficulty related to the development of the Schengen Information System, the SIS II, it was the then Portuguese Presidency that helped us with a generous and inventive solution.
I would also like to thank the Chair, Mr López Aguilar, and all the members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, for their commitment to this issue. The Hungarian Presidency has made considerable efforts to take this dossier forward. The Presidency became aware early on that there was a need to address persistent reservations on the part of a number of Member States vis-à-vis the process.
The Presidency therefore put the state of play of the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen on the agenda of the JHA Council meeting on 24 and 25 February. On that occasion, the Council endorsed the Presidency’s conclusions on the progress made and the need to continue to work in close cooperation with all Member States towards a solution acceptable to all parties involved.
Both Bulgaria and Romania have taken very significant steps to bring their countries’ policy and practice up to the Schengen standards. These include areas such as data protection, police cooperation, the control of external air, sea and land borders, the issuing of visas and the appropriate implementation of the SIS and SIRENE functions. In the meantime, the Schengen evaluation of Romania and Bulgaria on all chapters was completed in March with a positive outcome. Following the adoption of the relevant reports by the relevant Council working party, the Presidency submitted draft conclusions on the completion of the evaluation process to the JHA Council scheduled for 9 June.
I know that this will be good news for most in this House, not least those Members from Bulgaria and Romania. It will mark an important step on their way towards full participation in Schengen. The Council will continue to monitor further progress in all areas since proper follow-up is an ongoing exercise in all Schengen countries. In this respect, I can assure the honourable Members that both Bulgaria and Romania will continue to report regularly on the steps taken to remedy the remaining shortcomings. They will, in particular, be looking to reinforce further the controls at their borders and to improve cross-border police cooperation as well as their systems for the issuing of visas.
When Parliament adopts the report prepared by Mr Coelho and the Council adopts the conclusions drafted by the Presidency, only the very last step – adopting the decision of the Council which, as we all know, requires unanimity – will be left. In this respect, I would like to underline that the Council may return to this issue very soon to reflect on how it can further the process, possibly in September this year.
The report prepared by the rapporteur touches upon the subject of access to classified documents – as was also mentioned by the rapporteur in his introductory remarks – which was an important question in dealing with this dossier. Parliament’s access to classified documents is one of the outstanding interinstitutional issues between the Council and Parliament that the Hungarian Presidency is aiming to resolve. While we have managed to agree on the way forward with Parliament’s delegations, the implementation of the solution found still requires some time."@en1
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