Polish president supports Romania’s accession to Schengen area

Signed in 1985 in the small town of Schengen, near Luxembourg, from which it draws its name, the Schengen accord represents the implementation of one of the fundamental principles of the European Union, namely the one related to free movement. 25 states, of which 22 EU members, that have agreed to eliminate borders between them, are now part of the Schengen area.

The political, economic and strategic implications of the accord are critical, therefore any enlargement of the Schengen area is done with the agreement of all member states.

The deadline for accession to the Schengen area that Romania targets is March 2011. Bucharest claims it has done its homework for accession to take place at the established date, but this opinion is not unanimously accepted.

A recent report of the Romanian Center for European Policies shows that Romania has indeed done its homework, but its work is not flawless.

The government, the report writes, has counted on the European Union’s leniency, as it happened in the case of Romania’s accession to the EU, but this time the context is unfavorable. Out of 31 measures Romania has pledged to take, it has 4 more to implement. The problems Romania is facing are technical and political in nature.

The technical problems refer to the Schengen Information System and the air borders, but there is hope that shortcomings will be done away with by the end of the year.

However the big challenge is political in nature. The Romanian legal system is still being monitored by the European Union and the issue of Roma integration bothers some EU countries, such as France. However, besides reticence there is also encouragement.

On Tuesday, in Bucharest, the president of Poland, Bronislaw Komorovski, said Poland supported Romania’s effort to become a member of the Schengen area.

In turn the Romanian president, Traian Basescu, said he assured the Polish president that Romania would support the Polish presidency of the European Union, that follows the Hungarian presidency.

President Basescu also said that the current context of European presidencies is favorable to Romania.

Therefore he called for support for Romania’s accession to the Schengen area to be in line with the accession treaty and with the conditions Romania and the European Union have agreed upon when Romania joined the EU.