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Swedish Presidency of EU Council committed to expansion process of Schengen Area
The Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union is extremely committed to achieve the expansion process of Schengen through Romania's and Bulgaria's accession and will continue the demarches in order to attain this objective, Swedish Justice Minister Gunnar Strommer said on Thursday prior to attending the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council (JHA).
According to Agerpres correspondent, he said that it remains to be seen whether the enlargement of the Schengen Area shall be included on the JHA Council meeting agenda in June, stressing the commitment to achieve this expansion process which started in January by having meetings with the concerned countries, namely with Romania and Bulgaria, as well as with Austria and the Netherlands, as these were the countries that hadn't been prepared to approve the expansion so far. The Swedish official said that the discussions will continue and the Swedish Presidency of the EU Council will facilitate the talks in such a manner in which an agreement could be finally reached.
Sweden took over the Presidency of the Council of the EU on 1 January.
The expansion of the Schengen area is not on the agenda of the JHA Council meeting on Thursday and Friday. Thursday's meeting is the first official meeting of the JHA Council after the one in December when Romania and Bulgaria registered a failure, and Croatia was accepted in Schengen. In the case of Romania and Bulgaria, there was no unanimity, although the two countries have met all the necessary technical conditions, something recognized by the European Commission since 2011, including following the assessments made by European experts. The opposition came from Austria and the Netherlands, the latter mentioning that Bulgaria was not yet ready to enter Schengen.
As far as Austria is concerned, it argued that it cannot agree to the enlargement of the Schengen area as long as it, according to its opinion, is not functional. Vienna justified its standpoint, expressed mainly through the voice of Interior Minister Gerhard Karner, by the fact that more than 100,000 migrants or asylum seekers arrived in Austria, of whom approximately 75,000 had not yet been registered.
Karner said that this would actually happen when the European Union border was crossed and many of the unregistered persons would come through Romania or Bulgaria.