The rejection of Romania’s accession to the Schengen area by the Austrian veto at the Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting on 8 December was both a failure and an opportunity for Bucharest to continue its efforts quickly so as not to lose the progress made.

MEP Victor Negrescu, one of the most active Romanian MEPs on the issue of Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, draws attention to the fact that Romania must draw five lessons after the winter European Council meeting on 15 December, where the issue of Schengen accession did not advance.

In his view, the first thing Romania must learn is that Bucharest failed to make Schengen enlargement and the Austrian veto a European priority.

The issues of Romania’s and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area and the Austrian veto in the case of Bucharest and Sofia, and the Dutch veto in the case of Bulgaria, were not among the specific topics on the agenda of the ordinary meeting of the Winter European Council. At the meeting, according to the positions expressed by the President of the European Council, there was only “a political debate” on the enlargement of the Schengen area through the accession of Romania and Bulgaria, but the text of the conclusions does not mention any outcome.

Thus, in MEP Victor Negrescu’s view, this outcome leads us to the second thing Romania needs to learn, namely ambition.

“There is no clear prospect of joining the free movement area. Although it was easy to achieve, there was no reference to Romania’s accession to the Schengen area in the European Council conclusions. A lack of ambition on Romania’s part”, he said.

A third thing Romania needs to learn is that it has missed the moment to find a solution, MEP Victor Negrescu pointing out that the migration issue has become more important than Schengen enlargement.

At the end of the EU leaders’ summit, the president of the European Council confirmed that heads of state and government will meet in February 2023 for a summit on illegal migration.

Romania should also note after this meeting that Dutch opposition to Bulgaria’s accession has become increasingly radical after Dutch PM Mark Rutte mentioned a new CVM report for Bulgaria and possible talks next summer.

Thus, according to MEP Victor Negrescu, decoupling, directly through separate accession documents or indirectly through a joint accession decision, but with different dates, becomes the safest option, although not desirable.

Finally, the fourth thing to learn from this negative outcome is that there was a “strategic error” on Romania’s part, according to MEP Victor Negrescu.

In order to be able to join the Schengen area next year, MEP Victor Negrescu referred to the level of support from Romanian citizens on this subject, the cohesion of Romanian MEPs and the support of European partners, giving as an example the Social Democrat Chancellor of Germany and the President of the European Parliament.

“I hope that as a country we will learn from these mistakes. I believe in Romania and that we can achieve this goal”, concluded MEP Victor Negrescu.