Romania’s diplomatic offensive on entering the border-free Schengen zone has expanded to the Lisbon Treaty, with local lawmakers threatening to derail a Lisbon protocol on the appointment of 18 extra MEPs.

Speaking to the Romanian NewsIn news agency on Tuesday (4 January), Attila Korodi, the head of the foreign affairs committee in the lower chamber of the Romanian parliament, revealed that the assembly in December decided to postpone until February its ratification of a Lisbon protocol allowing 12 EU states to appoint 18 extra members to the European Parliament.

The decision was made at a joint meeting between the foreign affairs committees in the lower and upper houses in late December, shortly after Germany and France urged Brussels to block Romania’s entry into Schengen due to corruption and organised crime.

According to the protocol, France is to gain two extra MEPs, while Germany can keep all 99 of its already elected MEPs until 2014, when its allocated seats will drop to 96. The Netherlands will also get an extra euro-deputy, while Spain would get four, among other provisions.

The protocol was designed to rectify the problem that the current EU legislature was elected on Nice Treaty rules but that Lisbon Treaty rules came into force six months after the elections.

“The talks were very tough, we said we’ll delay [the decision] for another month to see what the situation is. But the principle was: Why should we comply to everything, and the big powers – Germany – always get an immediate derogation,” Mr Korodi said, in reference to the special provision allowing Germany to keep its three MEPs for four years.

His counterpart in the Senate, Titus Corlatean – himself a former Socialist MEP – also said there is a “matter of principle” about why smaller member states “are obliged to respect all the rules, while big member states get derogations, which are accepted.”

To read this story, log in or subscribe

Topics

• Rule of Law