EC Counters Sarkozy on Bulgaria, Romania Schengen Accession
Bulgaria and Romania's joining the Schengen Agreement should not be mixed with their post-EU accession monitoring mechanism, EU Commissioner Cecilia Malstrom has warned.
Malstrom's comment comes a day after French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that the decision on whether to admit the two countries to the Schengen Area must await the completion of Bulgaria and Romania's so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM), a mechanism for EC monitoring of their progress on corruption, crime, and judiciary reform.
Sarkozy has made it clear he doubted the two Balkan states' abilities to guard the external borders of the EU as full-fledged Schengen members. The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Finland have also indicated they had concerns with respect to Bulgaria and Romania's potential Schengen accession.