Schengen: less than equal
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August 2011 |
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JOAN HOEY - Senior Analyst, Central and Eastern Europe
THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT |
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JOAN HOEY
Senior Analyst, Central and Eastern Europe
THE ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE UNIT
“The Schengen system is providing the highest standards of border management,” the president of the European parliament, Jerzy Buzejk, said on June 8th, after the parliament had voted overwhelmingly to allow its two newest members, Bulgaria and Romania, to join its visa-free travel zone.
“Romania and Bulgaria are meeting those standards today. Hence we must not delay their integration.” The very next day EU interior ministers blocked their entry into Schengen. It was a blatantly political decision over what is supposedly a technical matter – the need for Schengen countries to show their border controls are up to scratch –and a stark reminder that the Balkan countries might have joined the EU, but they are not treated in the same way as the West European members.
Romania alone has spent over USD 1.3 bn on upgrading its border defences to Schengen standards. After a sometimes heated debate, the European parliament strongly backed the two countries’ Schengen bid, with 487 votes in favour of letting them in and just 77 against. Repeated inspections had confirmed that Romania and (less convincingly) Bulgaria met the technical standards for border controls. The European lawmakers said that Bulgaria needed to take some extra measures and improve border co-operation with Greece and Turkey – but were firm that both countries should be allowed to join Schengen.
After passing through the parliament the motion was passed on to the European Union Justice and Home Affairs Ministers Council, a grouping of the individual countries’ interior ministers that needs to agree unanimously on any extension of the Schengen area. They promptly shot the idea down and said the issue should be revisited in September. “Our concern is that even if they have reached technical standards on managing borders, corruption in those countries could weaken those borders,” said the French interior minister, Claude Gueant.
Some member states are tying the Schengen decision to both countries’ efforts to improve the judiciary and clamp down on corruption and (in Bulgaria’s case) organised crime. The EU has been monitoring efforts to improve these areas since the Balkan countries joined in 2007, with bi-annual reports from the European Commission being consistently critical of reform efforts to date. Now, a group of countries, led by the Netherlands, France and Germany, has insisted that any decision on joining Schengen is delayed until after the next report is published in July. “Based on that report we will see how we will go on,” said Germany’s interior minister Hans-Peter Friedrich.
It may take some time
That means the interior ministers won’t consider the application again until their next meeting in September, so in theory it is still possible for the two countries to join Schengen this year. However, the Netherlands reportedly wants to postpone any decision until next year. “It is too early to take a decision now and it may take some time before we are in a position to do so,” said the Dutch immigration minister Gerd Leers. “The Schengen system is based on mutual trust. We are asking new countries to effectively guard our borders.”
All of which means that Bulgarian and Romanian hopes to join Schengen in the first half of this year have been dashed, despite support from the European parliament, the European Commission and many individual countries, including the current president Hungary. However, the political concerns of a handful of the 25 Schengen members – Germany, France, Denmark, Finland, Sweden and the Netherlands–means that entry will likely be delayed for at least a year, with some fearing that the delays could drag on for longer than that. Hungary has suggested a compromise, with air travel being opened up this year and other forms of travel, such as road and rail, later on. But few expect it to happen.
The bid is being held hostage by two big EU concerns. First, there is a growing wariness of further EU expansion and exasperation with the perceived high levels of corruption in both these countries, also reflected in the tough anti-corruption standards being imposed on Croatia before it is allowed to join in (hopefully) 2013. Until such problems are sorted out, Romania and Bulgaria can forget about full EU integration, it seems.
A freedom too far?
Second, even existing Schengen members are questioning the idea of visa-free travel as the fear of threatened mass immigration intensifies following the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). This has already led to some countries calling recently for the reimposition of border controls within Schengen. This was not, perhaps, the most auspicious time for the two Balkan countries to be trying to extend the free-travel zone, especially with western politicians trying to seem tough on immigration to appease voters at home.
France’s president Nicolas Sarkozy repatriated some Roma people to Romania last year in flagrant violation of EU free-labour rules. He faces a threat from far-right nationalists in the May 2012 presidential election. Allowing Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen would hardly help his cause. Both France and Italy have asked to change the bloc’s rules to allow the temporary restoration of internal borders, fearing an influx of refuges from the violence in MENA. Denmark is being investigated by the European Commission over plans to strengthen its border controls for the same reason.
All of which leaves the Balkan states in a limbo. They have made joining Schengen a policy imperative, and still insist they will try to join Schengen this year. But it is already clear that they won’t be let in if this summer’s reports on their anticorruption efforts are not positive. And even if they are, political concerns in the West will prevent them joining any time soon. This was not what they were promised when they joined the EU on supposedly equal terms.
