Romania’s Schengen accession: a tough resolution calling for „action” at the EU Court of Justice against Austria has passed the Petitions Committee vote and goes to the European Parliament plenary

A draft European Parliament resolution following a petition by the NGO Clean Energy and Climate Change Association has been approved by a vote in the Petitions Committee and goes to the final vote in plenary, according to a statement from the EU legislature. Parliament’s plenary will now vote on this resolution, scheduled for the 10-13 July plenary session.

The resolution says the rejection of Romania’s Schengen membership is „discriminatory” and calls for „action” at the EU Court of Justice after Austria’s veto.

Furthermore, the resolution says that Austria’s veto has created anti-European sentiment and damaged the economy and climate. To show this, MEPs call on the Council to approve Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen free movement area by the end of 2023.

The Association for Clean Energy and Climate Change, led by Răzvan Nicolescu, a former energy minister and former chairman of the EU Energy Regulatory Authority (ACER), submitted a petition to the European Parliament’s Petitions Committee in March asking the institution to intervene legally in Romania’s Schengen accession process.

The European Parliament has also adopted four other resolutions calling for Romania and Bulgaria to join Schengen. The EP resolutions have no legal force but are an instrument of political pressure.

In a resolution adopted on Tuesday by 25 votes to 0 with 0 abstentions, MEPs on the Petitions Committee ask the Council to vote by the end of 2023 in favor of admitting Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area, given that both countries have already met the necessary requirements for admission.

The resolution points out that citizens from Bulgaria and Romania are discriminated against because they face delays, bureaucratic difficulties, and extra costs when traveling or doing business abroad compared to their Schengen counterparts, the text says.

Pointing to waiting times at border crossing points, MEPs note that delays faced by Romanians and Bulgarians can last from a few hours to even days – compared to 10 minutes without internal border controls – which also worsens working conditions for lorry drivers.

In addition to the damage caused to the EU’s single market by preventing the free movement of goods between EU member states, the text highlights the „irreparable damage” to the environment, which is not in line with the Union’s climate neutrality objectives. The health of drivers, customs officers and people living near border crossings is put at risk by the increased pollution caused by the thousands of vehicles waiting to cross the border every day, while around 46,000 tonnes of CO2 are emitted every year, say MEPs.

The resolution calls on the Commission to estimate the opportunity costs and environmental damage that Romania and Bulgaria have suffered since June 2011 due to the „unjustified refusal” of Schengen accession and to encourage it to explore the possibilities of financial compensation. MEPs stress that the current situation „is instrumentalized by anti-EU propaganda, including Russian propaganda” and „undermines the EU’s ability to promote its values and good governance in third countries”.

Currently, all EU Member States except Bulgaria, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania are part of the Schengen free movement area, which also includes the non-EU countries Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. The European Commission has assessed that Bulgaria and Romania are ready to join Schengen, and the European Parliament has repeatedly supported their accession, most recently in a resolution on 5 October 2022 and a debate on 14 December 2022.