The Dutch Parliament is not supporting for now Romania’s joining Schengen, The Netherlands’ ambassador to Romania, Matthijs van Bonzel, who underlined there is a connections between Schengen and meeting the European standards. “At this moment, the integration is not supported by the Dutch Parliament, as the Parliament doesn’t consider Romania has fulfilled all initial demands in order to become the European Union member (…) Romania was not ready at the time of joining EU. It was ready from many points of view, but not the essential ones. I am talking here about legislation, about judicial system, about its efficiency and impartiality in the way the law are brought into force, about institutional corruption,” ambassador van Bonzel told an interview to Realitatea TV.
The Dutch envoy also underlined there is a strong connection between Schegen and the compliance with the EU standards. “Some politicians have denied this connection in the past three years since I am ambassador here. But there is a very close connection. Once you become EU member you also have to meet all standards imposed by this statute. Maybe not all countries do respect all standards, but at least they try to do their best to prove that situation is under control. Romania joined EU without meeting all these requirements but now it is catching up with them targeting to reach the level it should have been in 2007,” the diplomat said.
“When you read the CVM report, yes we can see progress, but Romania has not reached the maximum level. Once this level is reached, we shall go to our Parliament and tell our lawmakers that Romania is meeting all criteria (…)” the Dutch ambassador also said.
In his view, Romania still needs to solve the illegal wealth issue, as the present seizure rate is still low, 10 percent. Van Bonzel also complained that Dutch lawmakers are dissatisfied with the fact that the Romanian state hasn’t paid the Dutch company that recovered the wreck of a stranded ship in the Danube-Black Sea channel seven years ago, although there was even a verdict ruled by the International Commerce Chamber in Paris in this respect.