Na reunião de hoje da Comissão das Liberdades, Carlos Coelho fez o ponto da situação sobre a adesão da Bulgária e da Roménia ao Espaço Schengen.
BULGARIA AND ROMENIA ACESSION TO SCHENGEN
Rapporteur Carlos Coelho
03.02.11, Civil Liberties Committee
1. FAST PROCEDURE
In order to allow the JAI Council to take a decision in 24/25th February, the Civil Liberties Committee has agreed in having a fast procedure regarding this file, using only an English version, in order to avoid translation delays.
I would like to thank to all colleagues for having agreed to use this procedure, exceptionally.
However, the European Parliament, until this moment, didn't receive the requested documents (namely the evaluation reports concerning Bulgaria and Romania, as well as the recommendations made to each one of them, and the information on the state of play regarding the implementation of these recommendations by the Member States concerned). Adding the fact that the JAI Council of February is not planning to take anymore the decision regarding the accession of those two countries (the agenda of the JAI Council of 24/25th February makes reference only to a discussion regarding the "state of play), that lead us to the conclusion that there is no need anymore to keep the fast procedure. In this case, we will follow the normal procedure, respecting the need for translation in all languages.
2. ACCESS TO DOCUMENTS
According to the consolidated Court of Justice case-law on the principle of sincere cooperation between the institutions, mirrored in article 13(2) TEU, the European Parliament should be provided with all the necessary information in order to fully play its role in this procedure.
By letter of 16 December 2010 of the Chairman of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (Mr. Juan Fernando López Aguilar) to the Minister for Home Affairs of the Belgian Presidency of the Council (Mrs. Annemie Turtelboom), the European Parliament required the evaluation reports concerning Bulgaria and Romania, any reports made concerning re-visits, as well as the recommendations made to each one of them and the information on the state of play regarding the implementation of these recommendations by the Member States concerned.
On the 25th of January the response of the Council arrived to the European Parliament, stating that the documents requested could be made available to the Chairman, the coordinators of political groups and the rapporteurs. Access will be arranged within a secure room on the Council premises. In accordance with the Council's security regulations for protecting EU classified information, the documents will remain in the possession of the Council, and no subsequent direct reference to the content of the documents should be made in any public meetings.
It is important to note the fact that in this answer, the Council is granting much less to the European Parliament, if we compare to what was previously granted in 2007, when the European Parliament gave its opinion regarding the accession to the Schengen Area of 9 countries (Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), which is unacceptable.
At that time, the answer of the Council stated " With reference to the request made to the Presidency of the Council of the European Union by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs on 17 July 2007, and to your letter of 11 September 2007, I am pleased to inform you that Coreper has agreed to allow the President of the European Parliament and the Members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to consult all the evaluation reports for the States to which the above draft Decision applies".
In parallel, the conclusions regarding those evaluations reports were desclassified and send to the European Parliament.
3. SHALL WE WAIT FOREVER?
I don't think that the European Parliament should wait forever.
In the meeting with the shadow-rapporteurs it was suggested to fix a deadline.
If the European Parliament doesn't receive any documents, until the 2nd of May, than the European Parliament should aprove its opinion reflecting the value that it gives to the wish of these to countries to join the Schengen area, but underlining that we cannot assess if the necessary security requirements are fulfilled in order to allow the accession of these two countries, because it was denied to the European Parliament an acceptable access to above mentioned documents.
By giving this opinion, the European Parliament concludes the consultation procedure and the Council cannot delay its Decision with the excuse that is still waiting for the European Parliament's opinion.