The European Parliament will not accept the violation of the Treaties and the blocking of European decisions without any legal basis and will continue to support Romania’s accession to the Schengen area, stressed Social Democrat MEP Victor Negrescu, in the context of discussions in the Committee on Constitutional Affairs (AFCO) regarding his report on special legislative procedures, which defines the obligation of the principle of loyal cooperation in the European decision-making process and calls for legal justification of all vetoes applied.

“We need legal clarity, respect between the European institutions, flexible mechanisms, respect for the European Treaties, especially for the principle of loyal cooperation. No one should be able to block European decisions without any legal justification, including some European leaders, in particular Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who recently declared that he would block Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area which has no legal justification and is not in line with the Treaties. With this report of strategic importance for the European Parliament, I hope to show that we, MEPs, manage to have a common voice, a strong voice in defending the Treaties, including by providing clarifications with regard to the implementation of this special mechanism foreseen by the European regulations”, said MEP Victor Negrescu at the AFCO meeting on 25 October.

The document clearly highlights relevant cases where the Council does not respect the Treaties, does not respect the role of the European Parliament and does not respect some key principles related to sincere mutual cooperation, but also to the issue of institutional balance.

For example, MEPs refer to the situation regarding the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area which has been delayed for 12 years and which has been blocked by what they call an unjustified veto, which had no legal basis. They also refer to the right of inquiry and the unblocking of negotiations with the Council and the Commission, the electoral law and the postponement of the start of negotiations on Parliament’s report, but also mention Parliament’s composition, “where there are significant delays in the work of the Council”.

The report includes the following:

• legally defines the principle of loyal cooperation;
• demands legal justification for vetoes on the basis of the European Treaties and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union;
• imposes a time limit on the formulation of an EU Council position;
• requires the introduction of special legislative mechanisms when there is an inter-institutional conflict which may go as far as changing the voting procedure in the EU Council or requiring an opinion of the European Parliament.

Victor Negrescu pointed out that “many amendments have been received, showing the importance of this report, 114 amendments in total from all political groups”. In this regard, the MEP said that solid proposals for compromise amendments had been drafted with the support of the AFCO secretariat, especially on non-controversial issues. “We hope to find a consensus between the political groups on these elements because we already have well established positions, confirmed by the votes that have taken place in this Committee and in the European Parliament on these various issues,” he added.

For example, Negrescu recalled that in the case of Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen area, several European Parliament resolutions had been approved showing that there was a consensus on this issue, “so we should not go back to something that has already been approved” or “delete parts of the text” on which there was already a clear position.

“We have sent compromise amendments, we expect comments from political groups by 26 October. We intend to hold a technical meeting soon, on 6 November, and on the basis of that, to hold political meetings with the shadow rapporteurs. I hope that we will have a vote in the AFCO Committee on 28 November, as scheduled”, said the Romanian representative in the European Parliament.

This report creates a legal basis to support Romania in the perspective of a new vote at the Justice and Home Affairs Council or in the context of an action at the Court of Justice of the European Union.