Romania maintains its objective to join Schengen in 201 and the adhesion calendar will be set in September, President Basescu declared on Friday. He said that the reality is that no decision could have been made until Bulgaria had its evaluation reports, which happened in May. He said that the EP vote in favor of Romania and Bulgaria to join Schengen is an important political statement even though EP’s role is consultative. Basescu said the most important thing is that at the Interior Affairs and Justice Council in September a calendar of adhesion will be established.

Here are Basescu’s statements

• We cannot not give our full attention to the EC report on the justice system in July given that states like Netherlands, France, Germany link our adhesion to Schengen with the reform of the judiciary  
  
  
• We cannot not admit the deficiencies of the Romanian justice system: long trial terms and delaying procedures in high corruption cases among others 
  
  
• No other EU member state was so affected by their justice system as it happened in Romania  
  
  
• One of the major problems we have is a new Superior Council of Magistracy – the Senate managed to designate a representative of the civil society that is incompatible according to the National Integrity Agency and managed to postpone naming a second representative of the civil society – all measures in the detriment of the country’s interest  
  
  
• All Romanian MEPs irrespective of their group voted for Romania to join Schengen which shows we can stand united for the national interest 
  
  
• We maintain our objective to join Schengen in 2011.