mr president thank you for this very useful debate
there is indeed a clear need to strengthen the trust and faith in schengen by strengthening governance and by strengthening the evaluation mechanism as the commission proposed long before christmas with more involvement of independent experts and the commission and also increased transparency involving parliament in all the steps that are taken there
we also need to become much better in immediately assisting member states which are in difficulties for one or other reason and we need to clarify under what circumstances border controls might be reintroduced
all this needs to be done
we also need to fight against corruption and to increase the fight
yes there is corruption in bulgaria and romania but there is corruption in every member state and the commission proposed only yesterday a report on how we want to enforce the struggle against corruption
some of you were kind enough to refer to this
but in the meantime we must recognise the enormous efforts that have been made by bulgaria and romania in order to comply with the technical requirements of schengen
they are very clear they are very transparent
that is why these countries must be given a clear perspective a clear framework on what is expected of them so that member states will feel ready to welcome them into the schengen community
