Renew MEPs propose a mini-Schengen between Greece, Bulgaria, and Romania
Renew Europe MEPs have proposed the rapid creation of a mini-Schengen between Greece, Romania and Bulgaria, to be operational this summer, to ease the heavy tourist traffic between the three EU Balkan countries.
The proposal was written in a letter sent to Greek Immigration and Asylum Minister Dimitris Kairidis and was signed by Daniel Laurer (PP) and Romanian MEPs Dacian Cioloș and Vlad Gheorghe, as well as Greek MEP Georgios Kyrtsos.
The initiative was also announced by the Bulgarian party We Continue the Change, which is close to Renew, although it has not yet been officially accepted as a member.
“We are in Schengen, and we are not at the same time. We must use this reality of the new Schengen,” Romanian MEP Vlad Gheorghe (Renew) told Euractiv Bulgaria in an exclusive interview.
He said that MEPs had received informal yet “very positive” signals from the Greek government that they would support the initiative.
But Greece has a land border with Bulgaria and Romania, unlike Austria, which for now still opposes both countries’ full membership. While they already benefit from Schengen Area rights for air and sea travel, they are set to become partial members from 31 March.
In its letter, Renew Europe mentions the Commission’s support for including Bulgaria and Romania in Schengen. It also argues that representatives of Greek tourism, as well as the hotel, restaurant and catering sectors, are insisting on the abolition of land border controls to facilitate the travel of Romanian and Bulgarian tourists to Greece.
“Currently, the control of land borders between the three countries is still causing huge losses to transport companies and tourists in terms of travel costs, financial losses and time losses,” the letter reads, adding that abolishing border controls would immediately improve the environmental situation in the border areas.
However, as regards the abolition of border controls, Gheorghe told Euractiv Bulgaria that the three EU countries would not seek approval from other Schengen countries and are simply informing the others to find out how many oppose it.
“We are now saying that Austria has nothing to do with this. Obviously, it is not between Romania and Greece. Bulgaria is there. So we should not interfere. The political logic is that we do not want the approval of others. We want to know that nobody opposes it. Nobody would oppose it because they have no interest in doing it,” Gheorghe said.
According to him, the creation of a mini-Schengen must be agreed upon by the start of March, so the initiative can start functioning by the summer.
“The ruling party in Greece has every interest in doing it because the Greek tourism associations specifically requested it. They asked the government to do something about it because they make a lot of money from tourism, and a lot of money is lost because of border controls,” Gheorghe said.
(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)
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