Expanding Schengen

The European Parliament (EP) passed a resolution in October urging EU member states to allow Bulgaria and Romania to join the Schengen agreement.

The move comes a month after the countries’ accession to the Schengen zone was vetoed by the Netherlands and Finland over concerns about organised crime and corruption.

As such, the EP decided against imposing additional conditions for the two countries’ accession, maintaining that the sufficiently satisfied the necessary acquis communautaire.

In a rebuff of the Dutch and Finish vetoes, the resolution asked EU member states to honour their commitments to the acquis, rather than "give priority to national populism".