Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2011-10-12-Speech-3-112-000"
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"en.20111012.15.3-112-000"2
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"Mr President, I am very grateful to Parliament and the political groups for raising this important issue and for putting questions to the Council at today’s sitting. I am pleased that the question of Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to the Schengen area is so particularly important to members of this House.
I am sure you all know that the Council discussed this matter at the meeting of 22-23 September on the basis of a compromise proposal put forward by the Presidency. It was drafted in response to fears – expressed earlier by some Member States – over the initial request for a decision on a framework for full application of the provisions of the Schengen
to Bulgaria and Romania.
Unfortunately, it became clear that it would be impossible to guarantee the unanimous support within the Council which is essential to reaching agreement. Therefore, the Presidency decided not to put the request for a Council decision to the vote.
Honourable Members, as you know, the Act of Accession of 2005 provides for verification through an evaluation procedure in order to guarantee that Bulgaria and Romania fulfil the conditions necessary for application of all parts of the Schengen
. This is an essential condition for the Council so that it can – after consultations with the European Parliament – decide on full application of the
and the consequent abolition of checks at internal borders and at borders between these two Member States.
These evaluations were carried out between 2009 and 2011. After completion of the evaluation process, on 9 June this year, the Justice and Home Affairs Council adopted conclusions corroborating the fact that the necessary preconditions enabling the Council to decide on the abolition of checks at internal air, land and sea borders have been met. The Council also agreed that it would come back to this matter as soon as possible and not later than September this year.
The Polish Presidency submitted a compromise proposal to the Council. This proposal provided for the gradual abolition of internal border checks: initially at air and sea borders, and then at land borders. This proposal was also the fruit of a process of intensive discussions with the Member States, including, of course, Bulgaria and Romania. As I have already said, it did not receive the necessary unanimous support.
We are still treating the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area as a priority, and we are involved in work which will enable a quick decision to be made on this matter. The Polish Presidency is determined to ensure that agreement is reached quickly on this matter, and to this end we are going to continue to work on a balanced approach which will allay the specific fears expressed by some Member States while also providing for the abolition of checks at land borders in a reasonable timeframe.
The Presidency will keep Parliament informed about this situation as it develops."@en1
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