(Bloomberg) -- Romania will step up its efforts to woo the European Union members holding it back from joining the borderless Schengen area after the head of the bloc's executive declared the country ready to join.
EU Affairs Minister Victor Negrescu said authorities in Bucharest will switch to a “more pro-active approach” to convince Germany, France and the Netherlands to relent from tying the Balkan state's entry into the visa-free zone to political criteria. Negrescu argued that Romania has been technically ready “for many years” to secure its part of the EU's external frontier with Ukraine, Moldova and the Black Sea.
“We're talking about a right -- the right of Romania to become a member of the Schengen area,” Negrescu said on Thursday. “It's not, and it shouldn't be a political decision, because joining Schengen is about meeting the technical criteria, which we do.”
Romania, which will hold the EU presidency's in 2019 when the U.K. is set to exit the bloc, is supported in its Schengen bid, along with Bulgaria, by the European Commission. The two Black Sea neighbors should be allowed in, Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the commission, said on Wednesday.
While it has the support of most member states, the three EU countries reluctant to grant Romania access say the country of 19 million people needs to make more progress on judicial reforms and the fight against corruption.
To contact the reporter on this story: Andra Timu in Bucharest at atimu@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andrea Dudik at adudik@bloomberg.net, Michael Winfrey, Andras Gergely
Essential Business Intelligence, Sharp Market Insights, Practical Personal Finance Advice, Daily Fuel, Gold and Silver Prices and Latest Stories — On NDTV Profit.
