Members of the Schengen evaluation group will decide on Friday, if they will adopt the technical reports for Romania and Bulgaria following the decision on January 14 when, at the request of the French representative, members awarded supplementary time to study the reports on Romania, Romanian news agency Mediafax reads.

Romania’s Schengen evaluation report on SIS/SIRENE was presented on January 14, at Brussels by the expert coordinating the evaluation mission. During the meeting, the French representative requested supplementary time to read the report on Romania.

The deadline to raise questions or demand clarifications expire on January 21, without any information requested from the Romanian party. The report on Romania was positively evaluated at the time while the report on Bulgaria was negative. Therefore, the EU Hungarian Presidency considers the possibility to allow a partial adhesion to Schengen of the two countries in March.

The proposal was to allow the two countries to join Schengen first with their air borders, following a complete integration at a later time. France and Germany consider that Romania and Bulgaria should join Schengen only when they register progress in the fight of corruption and reform of the judicial system. Finland joined the two countries are refused to accept the two countries. If the issue will be submitted to the European Parliament for a vote, a unanimous vote is necessary.