This week, our cross-border, partially Balkan-based team awaited the results of the vote on Schengen Zone enlargement. In the end, out of three candidate countries only Croatia has reasons to rejoice: Romania and Bulgaria will still stay outside the Zone. Why so?
What strategy can Bucharest and Sofia adapt to get a favourable decision on the next occasion? Vladimir Mitev asked experts about it, and while they were divided in their assessment of why Austria and the Netherlands used the veto, they were convinced that Bulgaria and Romania must not stand against each other now. Instead, more cooperation is needed - for purely practical reasons.
- We could not manage the Danube on our own without Bulgaria, because if Bulgaria does not dredge on its side, we cannot have a navigable canal. The sand will flow back towards us. We can do this only together - Ion Lixandru, a Romanian infrastructure and transport expert, gave one key reason.
Our returning guest Sergiu Miscoiu from Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca (Romania; photo below) suggested that Bulgaria and Romania could actually try to do even more than to harmonize the pro-Schengen effort: they could abolish mutual border controls, forming a ‘mini-Schengen’.
- Romania has projected itself into the French-speaking world. The good relationship with France in the 19th century, a cultural model. Bulgaria, to a greater extent, projected itself into the German-speaking or Russian-speaking area. Neither of these two countries had privileged partnership relations with the countries in their immediate neighbourhood, i.e. Romania with Hungary, Bulgaria with Greece, for example - he said, calling to rethink this attitude and to seek more common projects in one’s own region.
A similar opinion comes from Radu Dinescu, Secretary General of the National Union of Road Carriers in Romania. - We must look at the possibility of simplifying, streamlining and gradually reducing control until it is completely abolished. I would start by making it easier for cars and trucks registered in Romania and Bulgaria and others in Europe. If there is still a need for facilitation for vehicles from other places, this can be negotiated. But ultimately, I think we need to get to a system where we behave as if we have joined Schengen - he commented.
While the rise of nationalist calls to seek revenge on Austria for the veto is only temporary in Romania, the rise of nationalist extreme right in Israel has been a steady process. Itamar Ben Gvir, convicted in 2007 for inciting to racial hatred, is now the Minister of Security in Netanyahu’s government. He gained popularity, inciting enmity towards Palestinian population, including (or even mainly) the Palestinians with Israeli passport, unengaged in any protest movements. What could he do, standing at the head of the powerful ministry? Ben Gvir’s portrait authored by Wojciech Albert Łobodziński does not give much optimism.
The separation wall between Israel and the occupied territories.
Can we retain any optimism when looking at the horrible destruction going on in Ukraine? French intellectuals, labour unionists and left-wing politicians, albeit unable to stop the war on their own, give us a clear vision of how a just ending of this war would be: now it is not only a question of Russia’s withdrawal and return of refugees, but also of war reparations and punishing those who issued orders to destroy civilian population.
French unionists and activists march in support for Ukraine, Paris, December 9.
Another voice on Ukraine that we published comes from Ukraine itself. In an interview by Ignacy Jóźwiak, Yuriy Samoylov (photo below), chairman of the Independent Miners’ Union in the industrial hub of Kryvyi Rih in South-Eastern Ukraine, gives a powerful testimony on the role of labour unions in the all-people defence effort. Ukrainian unions fight to secure minimum labour rights for workers, against the ultra-liberal laws passed by Ukrainian parliament. At the same time, they equip their fighting members and even help families get back the bodies of those killed in battle.