Romania exits the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism and moves towards the Schengen area

Bulgaria goes under again monitoring of the European Commission for rule of lawsince in 2019 Brussels ceased to control it through annual reports. Then the impression was created that it was precdelayed the functioning of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), which was devised for her and Romania from the first day of EU membership in 2007. Former Minister of Justice Danail Kirilov is so sure of the repeal of the CVM that he promises to resign from the government of Boyko Borisov, if it does not prove itself right, the newspaper recalled NOW.

He has not been a minister for a long time, but the SME is back as a nightmare for the state, because it has not given real evidence that it is fighting corruption and organized crime. Ef was expected from herective convictions (“real results”) against mob bosses and corrupt high-ranking officials.

The renewal of monitoringit has become hush-hush with the consent of Bulgaria as a condition to reconsider her application for Schengenthe skate zone. The news was noticed by BTAwho in an analysis yesterday drew attention to the statement of the office of Foreign Minister Nikolay Milkov, who on January 27 gave an account to the media of what he accomplished in his post.

According to Milkov, the analysis writes, European countries have gradually adopted the vocabulary that the Netherlands and some other skeptical countries have managed to push over the years, namely that the mechanisms for rule of law are part of the assessment and should be part of the criteria for membership in Schengen. Bulgaria insisted until the end that the criteria for Schengen are only technical, and did not accept the Dutch objections.

“This is a fact that we cannot comply with, and for this reason we have made an effort to convince your partners how far we have come with the mechanism and what we have been able to change after 2019.“said Milkov.

The acting foreign minister indicated that Bulgaria will be obect of a new report that will summarize the country’s achievements since 2019, when it wasecthe writing of reports on it by the European Commission. According to him, this new report should show progress in relation to the rule of law.

“If no progress is made, this could further spell trouble for the Bulgarian bid when you start looking at it mid-year“, said Milkov at the report of his mandate.

After pausing for Bulgaria, EC continued to write reports on Romania. The last one for her was on November 22, 2022 then Brussels made the finding that “the success from Romania progress on SMEs is sufficient to meet the commitments ì made during EU accession“.

e.gecand that the mechanism has not been officially canceled as for Bulgariaalso for Romania, because the decision of the Council of the EU (governments) is awaited, the Netherlands has made it clear that it no longer has any objections to the Romanian application for Schengen. Her consent was reflected in the Bucharest declaration from January 28 of this year Thus against the admission of Romania in Schengen only the objections of Austria remained, while the Netherlands and Austria opposed the Bulgarian candidacy at the same time.

On January 31, Romanian Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on this matter: “I am convinced that Bulgaria follows his steps with both Austria and Holland, because Holland is against it Bulgaria and there are a number of conditions that must be met by Sofia”. His words were a sign that Romania was getting out of the uncomfortable company of Bulgaria in the European corruption watchdog and got herself into Schengenskate zone this year.