Should the Schengen Area be expanded?

The Debates feature from Euro|Topics offers English (+ French and German) translations of a selections of articles in European news sources on this topic.

Euro|Topics relaunched their website during 2016. Features published before that date are still available via an archive website (see related url hyperlinks).In the State of the Union 2017 address given on the 13 September 2017 European Commission President Juncker spoke out in favour of extending the Schengen Area to include Romania and Bulgaria without delay.

In view of criticism from various EU member states, however, commentators in the two countries have little hope that border checks will soon be a thing of the past for them.

• Primary Source

http://archiv.eurotopics.net/en/home/presseschau/aktuell.html http://archiv.eurotopics.net/en/home/presseschau/aktuell.html

ESO: Background information: Schengen area http://www.europeansources.info/record/schengen-borders-and-visas/

ESO: Background information: The Schengen Area [What Think Tanks Are Thinking], February 2016 http://www.europeansources.info/record/the-schengen-area-what-think-tanks-are-thinking/

Schengen Visa Info, 14.09.17: Romania and Bulgaria to Join the Schengen Area ‘immediately’ and Western Balkan to have a better integration prospect– said Juncker https://www.schengenvisainfo.com/romania-and-bulgaria-to-join-the-schengen-area-immediately/

The Local.de, 14.09.17: Germany opposed to rapid expansion of passport-free Schengen area https://www.thelocal.de/20170914/germany-opposed-to-rapid-expansion-of-passport-free-schengen-area

Dutch News.nl, 14.09.17: ‘I’m not such a romantic,’ Dutch PM says of Juncker’s state of the union speech https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2017/09/im-not-such-a-romantic-dutch-pm-says-of-junckers-state-of-the-union-speech/

Romania-Insider.com, 15.09.17: German, Austrian, Dutch officials oppose Romania entering Schengen https://www.romania-insider.com/opposition-romania-entering-schengen/

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