The EU Council’s vote last December on welcoming Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania into the border-free Schengen zone was supposed to be a victorious moment for the bloc. Showing unity after a year of political and economic difficulties, and emphasizing that the bloc still had the political capacity to further integrate the Balkan states into the European project.
Although Croatia marked the start of the new year by joining both the Eurozone and the Schengen zone a month after their successful entry offer, their Balkan partners were not so lucky. Citing concerns over the failure to fully implement European rule of law standards, as well as links between criminal gangs and the two countries’ political establishments, the Netherlands and Austria opposed their vetoed Bulgaria’s candidacy, with Austria only vetoing Romania’s candidacy.
The veto caused a massive outcry from politicians and the public. Immediately, accusations flew against the Netherlands and Austria, seen as blocking their Balkan partners due to domestic problems – with both countries facing increasingly supported anti-migrant opposition parties, rather only for reasonable political reasons.
Bulgarians and Romanians even talked about boycotting Austrian and Dutch products on social networks. Even some local politicians have joined in the initiative, suggesting their audiences snub Austrian banks as well as the products of Austrian chemical giant OMV.
Although many European leaders did what they could to quell the growing anger, the damage was done. Since then, the bloc’s two key political figures, alongside the Bulgarian and Romanian governments, have worked to ensure that another embarrassing veto does not happen again this year.
The immediate argument in favor of Bulgaria and Romania joining is clear. Having both joined the EU in 2007, both countries have met all technical requirements for Schengen membership since 2011. However, due to a lack of strong political will, mainly due to fears that both countries failed to effectively fight corruption, as well as bring their rule of law up to EU standards, their Schengen moment never came.
Since then, however, both countries have consistently worked to implement anti-corruption measures in line with EU standards, and have both taken extraordinary measures to ensure the security of their borders, downplaying the argument according to which the enlargement of the Schengen zone could create a risk of increasing illegal migration flows.
Austria and the Netherlands, which are their main concerns regarding institutional corruption and the role of organized crime, are also being dealt with. Although both countries continue to struggle with the obvious links between criminal gangs and political officials, more efforts are ultimately being made to address this situation.
This year alone, Bulgaria has undertaken numerous undercover operations with its partners in the UK, dismantling organized human trafficking networks, while finally taking stronger action to ensure that funds from the EU are properly allocated and are not secretly stolen by corrupt officials.
Additionally, Romania has taken steps to combat widespread corruption within its institutions, particularly with regard to human trafficking at its borders.
Moreover, leaving the two countries (with a combined population of around 25 million) out of the Schengen zone would continue an unnecessarily costly endeavor. One of the main arguments of Schengen is the reduction of waiting times between member states and the smoother passage of not only trade, but also people. Leaving two of the bloc’s members excluded from this incredible success of European integration would only add to the heavy financial burden on the local economies of both nations.
Pro-Russian parties benefit from it
For the EU to miss another valuable opportunity to integrate its Balkan members would not only be politically unwise, but could also create a furious backlash from the Bulgarian and Romanian public.
Both governments are struggling to counter the pro-Russian political parties Eurosceptic Renewal and Alliance for the Union of Romanians respectively, which have enjoyed growing support in recent months. Another Schengen veto would be the perfect political gift placed directly in their laps.
Although continued reform efforts are still needed in some areas within both Balkan countries, much of this work is currently underway and great progress has already been made. The two men have long proven themselves to be reliable and stable partners in the European project. Now it is time for the EU to finally reward them for their hard work and patience.
Continuing to exclude Bulgaria and Romania from Schengen will do little to encourage further political reforms and will only seek to antagonize and frustrate two otherwise very pro-EU members.
Bad faith actors, notably Russia, always looking for ways to divide EU member states, would kill to take advantage of an open opportunity to create disunity within the bloc, such as this. It is up to the EU Council to ensure that he never gets the chance.
