Brussels Assuages Bulgaria, Romania Fears over Schengen

Protesters show the French tricolour reading 'Sarkozysme' during a protest against xenophobia and the French government's immigration and security policy, in Paris, France, 04 September 2010. Photo by EPA/BGNES

The European Commission does not tie the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the border-free Schengen zone with the problems of the Roma minority from the two countries in France, a spokesman has said.

"The commission is assisting Bulgaria and Romania to meet the criteria and accede, if this is possible, to the Schengen zone in 2011," commission spokesman Michele Cercone said on Monday.

Earlier this month French officials said that Bulgaria and Romania should not enter Schengen until they have fulfilled all EU requirements regarding the fight with corruption and organized crime.

France is currently under fire regarding a campaign of ousting what it claims to be illegally residing Roma from its territory on to home countries Bulgaria and Romania.

French authorities have claimed that the responsibility for integrating Roma people rests on their home countries, not on the EU country in which they chose to reside. They also claim that Roma returns are completely voluntary.

In August, 950 Romas were deported to Romania and some 40 to Bulgaria.

Bulgaria's government has been keeping a low profile over France's Roma crackdown, apparently fearing that tension with Paris might put at risk its Schengen accession.

The country hopes to join the EU's border-free zone by the end of 2011 as scheduled and the official line is that recent expulsions of mostly Romanian and Bulgarian Roma from France is irrelevant to that process.

The local media however, where the deportation made front-page news, have accused the government of shying away from an open confrontation with France, for fear this could jeopardize its Schengen accession, touted as one of the main priorities of Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

The harshest criticism of the expulsion of Roma from France came in an article in the Sega newspaper, which called it "the biggest mass deportation after the Second World War."

Most commentators condemned the action of France and said the measures have shown that more developed nations such as France are not in a position to cope with the Roma problem.

The Bulgarian press has also targeted its critical comments at the European Commission, blaming it for hypocrisy and double standards over its muted involvement in the affair.

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