Admission of Romania to the Schengen area

Subject: Admission of Romania to the Schengen area

1. What were the differences between Romania and Croatia regarding admission to the Schengen area?

2. What ‘firm commitments and assiduous efforts’ have been made by Croatia, as the Commission maintains, for admission to the Schengen area?

3. What measures is the Commission planning to take and when to secure the admission of Romania also, having declared that it has fulfilled all the necessary conditions?

Submitted: 5.1.2023

Answer given by Ms Johansson on behalf of the European Commission

(22 March 2023)

In 2011, Bulgaria and Romania successfully finalised their Schengen evaluation processes. The Commission also confirmed the readiness of Croatia for full application of the Schengen acquis in 2019 (1).

Given these two separate processes, on 8 December 2022, the Czech Presidency put on the agenda of the Schengen Council two separate Council Decisions for the full application of the Schengen acquis, one concerning Bulgaria and Romania and one for Croatia. However, only the decision concerning Croatia received the required unanimous support of the other Member States.

In its communication of 16 November 2022 (2), the Commission reiterated that Croatia has made great efforts to ensure that its management of the external borders is in line with the Schengen acquis, in particular also regarding fundamental rights obligations.

Croatia is the first Member State to establish, in June 2021, an Independent Monitoring Mechanism which was renewed and extended in November 2022.

The Commission fully supports the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the area without internal border controls . As set out in the November Communication, the recent voluntary fact-finding mission to Bulgaria and Romania (3) confirmed that these countries continue to effectively meet the rigorous Schengen standards and have proven a model track record of implementation.

The Commission will continue to do its utmost to ensure that the Council will take a positive unanimous decision soon.

1 ∙ ⸱ Commission Communication to the European Parliament and the Council on the verification of the full application of the Schengen acquis by Croatia (COM(2019)

497 final of 22 October 2019).

2 ∙ ⸱ Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council of 16 November 2022 on Making Schengen stronger with the full participation

of Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia in the area without internal border controls, COM(2022) 636 final, https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=CELEX %3A52022DC0636&qid=1669020880751

3 ∙ ⸱ Ibid, the visits took place in Romania (9 to 11 October 2022) and Bulgaria (12 to 14 October 2022).