Schengen (Bulgaria and Romania)
Finnish and Dutch governments must end charade and stop blocking decision on Schengen membership
The European Parliament today adopted a resolution calling on the Dutch and Finnish governments to stop blocking a decision to endorse the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the EU's Schengen border-free zone. The Greens strongly criticised the impasse, with the European Parliament already having approved the decision. After the vote Green home affairs spokesperson Judith Sargentini of the Netherlands said:
"The charade has gone on long enough. The veto by the Netherlands and Finland on endorsing the entry of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen was clearly nothing more than populist grandstanding from two governments seeking to pander to extremists. They have scored their populist points and must now stop blocking this decision. The European Parliament has today underlined this and we urge the Council to swiftly endorse the decision.
"Bulgaria and Romania have fulfilled the conditions required for their membership of Schengen, going to great lengths to do so, so there are no legitimate reasons for refusing their entry to the border-free zone. The Dutch and Finnish governments are cynically and deliberately misleading their public by playing along with incorrect claim that entry to Schengen equates to a carte blanche for all Romanian and Bulgarian citizens to work in Finland and the Netherlands. This is not the case and the Dutch and the Finnish governments know this. They should stop dishonestly regurgitating the false claims of the right and allow the Schengen enlargement to go ahead before more damage is done."
