Jean-Claude Juncker is the famously bibulous president of the European Commission. In the following video he touts the admission of Romania to the Schengen Zone — the European countries bound by treaty to accept mutually visa-free travel. He describes the process as inevitable. Romania will join Schengen; it is a given.
Think about why Mr. Juncker and the EC are doing this: there is no direct land connection between Romania and the rest of Schengen, except through Hungary. The migrants sometimes land directly in Romania, after crossing the Black Sea from Turkey. Presumably the pace will accelerate once Romania is a Schengen country.
With Romania in the Schengen Zone, Hungary will be unable BY LAW to deny entry to anyone who wants to cross the border from a fellow Schengen state. The fence will be irrelevant.
In this manner the EU will be backing Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán into a corner. If Orbán refuses to obey, the European Commission can haul him before the European Court of Justice, which will probably rule against him. At that point, he will either have to cave, or Hungary will have to leave the EU.
So that’s the game that’s afoot. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out.
Many thanks to Ava Lon for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Video transcript:
| 00:04 | Romania already deployed very important… | |
| 00:08 | during the last ten years — it made important progress | |
| 00:12 | concerning the reform of the judicial system | |
| 00:16 | and the fight against corruption. | |
| 00:20 | The end of the mechanism of cooperation and of verification doesn’t mean the end of | |
| 00:24 | or the renunciation of the reforms. The end of those mechanisms | |
| 00:28 | means more cooperation. And for my part, I’m counting on the promptness | |
| 00:32 | of the Romanian authorities, and in particular this parliament, in order | |
| 00:36 | to guarantee the irreversible character of the progress achieved thus far. | |
| 00:40 | The confidence of our fellow citizens | |
| 00:44 | has to be earned, and this is particularly accomplished by respecting | |
| 00:48 | of the independence of the judiciary and the separation of powers. | |
| 00:52 | The natural and deserved place for Romania | |
| 00:56 | is in the heart of the Schengen Area. | |
| 01:00 | The criteria for admission to the Schengen Area | |
| 01:04 | were clear, and there again we don’t need to add | |
| 01:08 | new demands. I want Romania to be able | |
| 01:12 | to become, as quickly as possible, a member of the | |
| 01:16 | Schengen Area, because Romania deserves it. |
[I don’t like] Junker!
he has no idea how crazy the Romanians are.
I hope he dies and rots in hell, […]
You are probably right. How many Romanians you know?
Romanians do have the right to travel free in Europe. The Schengen scheme is not about crazy Romanians. It serves “higher” purposes.
what kind of higher purposes? You mean to flood Europe with muslim immigration or what?
Oh, and stop ranting about the Romanians. If you had met average Romanians, you would know they are infinitely superior to the average Brit, for ex.
Romanians are white Europeans.
Romanians are NOT the Roma that form ghettos in your countries, drain your welfare systems or steal and beg. It’s NOT them.
What awful crime did the Romanians commit to deserve Schengen agreement upon them?
It’s a disastrous suicide deal, that all nations should avoid.
Juncker on the other hand is just a stupid drunkard as everybody can see.
Unfit for any responsible office.
This phoney, look at his fake face, same as Merkel’s.
Innocent schoolboy look; the must pick these actors very carefully.
This creep like Merkel, is the devil incarnate.He’s got more blood on his hands than Hitler!!!
Why hasn’t some brave soul apprehended this Juncker nazi?
These EU fascists have these innocent schoolboy faces, but they are murderers,
They are destroying our countries, peoples, and Europe.
They must be stopped!
[Discourteous rejoinder redacted].
One, the Black Sea is called “Black” for a reason so if any migrant wants to cross into Romania from Turkey would rather use the route through Bulgaria than likely ending up on the bottom of the sea if they attempt to cross the Black Sea in a dinghy.
Second, the admission into the Schengen zone is decided by vote by ALL UE Member States, not by Juncker, and around here we’ve learned long ago that as long as Netherlands doesn’t get their hands on the port of Constanța (which they won’t), Netherlands would say “no” to Schengen for Romania. Of course, for corruption, for backwardness and for the bunny not wearing a red cap.
End of story. So if anyone wants to make Viktor Orban a bigger hero than he already is, I respectfully suggest him/her to find another scapegoat. Or else, well, history seems to have a wicked sense of humor, at least in this part of the world. 🙂
Funny that Juncker, representing a corrupt and incompetent Brussels EU, mentions corruption, and Romania in the same sentence. Romania is a convenient place for braver Europeans to buy black market high caliber weapons while vacationing at the same time. But there is there not a longer route available around Hungary through Servia, Kroatia, Slovenia, and directly into Austria for the profitable migrant transport business? “I want Romania to be able to become, as quickly as possible, a member of the Schengen Area, because Romania deserves it.” Deserves it, yes. Puppet Juncker is as usual oblivious to reality and the consequences of Brussels EU policies as he reads, sometimes stumbling over his prepared lines.
How come Junker did not died there ? There is a big cross in front, there is no EU flag…
http://www.rfi.ro/sites/default/files/articol/constantin_nita_deputat_psd_partidul_social_democrat_opozitie_parlament.jpg
As an expat in Romania, it’s clear to me that Romanians will lose their country if this happens. People who know Romania will have some understanding of what an immense tragedy that encompasses. Agreement with the EU is a pact with the devil. Only one solution – given that there are many in government who’d sell their country down the river for preferment, and that’s people power.
I cross between Austria and Hungary often to shop. In the last several months the Austrians have added controls even at the secondary road I travel.
Anyway today I asked one of the guards what happens if someone tries to cross without passport or residency card and was told in no uncertain terms: they will be turned back.
Granted the checks are currently random, nevertheless if this is legal policy, even if only temporary, then why couldn’t Hungary, for example, do the same thing on the Romanian border. If Schengen is foisted on them. Even if internal passport controls are removed leave an intact fence and make all crossings via checkpoints where the flow can be controlled and/or monitored.
After all the EU says this : The reintroduction of border control is a prerogative of the Member States. The Commission may issue an opinion with regard to the necessity of the measure and its proportionality but cannot veto such a decision if it is taken by a Member State.
The EC could decide to take the issue to the European Court of Justice. They have maintained all along that all these intra-Schengen border controls are illegal. I think they will eventually try to do something about the most strategically significant ones, which makes it likely that Hungary will be screwed to the wall as an example to all the others. I think that’s what they intend to do.
But if they were to go to the ECJ the EU would be arguing against their own policy, wouldn’t they? After all, the EU Schengen Border Code states internal controls, albeit temporary, are the prerogative of the member state.
I absolutely concur about Hungary being the target here. I would modify that however to be rather Orban, as the ulimate target. The EU will not be satisfied until all the sheep are neatly lined up baaing the party line. As long as there is a black sheep or two that will not happen.
And I can’t help but wonder about what the Orban government is up to with its “Let’s Stop Brussels” campaign. Inserts in newspapers and placards posing questions and giving articles about interference whether real or perceived by Brussels into national affairs of Hungary. Under the pretext of using citizen feedback to assist in formulating government policies, etc.
I am starting to wonder where this will eventually lead. I don’t think Hungary would leave the EU but…if pushed hard enough who knows.
It is a scheme. Romanians do not deserve to be in Schengen. Romanians do not deserve to be in EU. This is a joke. This is proof that EU is a joke. On other nations’ expense.
What the hell did the romanian people do to you ? Romanians are well educated nice people and faught for centruries to keep the eastern invaders out of Europe, giving the westerners the chance to evolve. [ad-hominem redacted].
The Soviets said something similar about their “Progress”. Look how that turned out…
Abridged transcript:
“Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated.”
It did not turn out well for Honecker. Juncker will meet the same fate.
“he touts the admission of Romania to the Schengen Zone — the European countries bound by treaty to accept mutually visa-free travel.”
There already is visa-free travel from and to every EU country, and Romania is a EU country. It has been so for over 15 years now.
Anyone who wants to cross the border from another EU state already has the right to do it.
Also, Hungary has the right to return migrants to the first country that registered them. Even though the procedure may be somewhat cumbersome.
Of course, Hungary is not the end-destination for migrants anyway, so what Orban is doing is to simply block their passage through Hungary. Through Hungary. This is saving one’s own skin, and only temporarily. If anyone imagines they can keep migrants in Italy, Bulgaria or Greece indefinitely, or for that matter, in Germany, they are very much mistaken. Once they get a refugee or humanitarian status they have the RIGHT to board on a plane and go live wherever they like. All Syrian “refigees” here already are doing that. In the peak of the crisis there were whole planes with migrants going to Germany, legally.
Protecting Europe means protecting the common borders, and above all, influencing the common European policy. Everything else is egoism, not heroism.
It is unbelievable that the elite within the EU are permitted to run riot with our sovereignty, culture, and safety.
They are so naive to think a European state will keep the Russians at bay.
Can they not see that they are looking at the wrong enemy? Russia is the last hope of Europeans.
Back in the old days circa 1960/70s, there was a joke comment people said: “I’d rather be dead than red”. Me, I’d rather live under Putin’s power than allow the imbeciles in the EU to hand Europe to the muslims.
Stupidity cures itself. The man with the dyed hair and a wife young enough to be his daughter just sold hundreds of billions of dollars of war machinery to the rather primitive desert dwellers who were fortunate enough to have a British geologist find oil under their camel dung campfires. In France…an adolescent married his Grandmother…and rushed to Germany to visit the Barren old lady with the pleasant demeanor. Meanwhile…the only statesman in the world might be having his patience wear thin. We should all be Rootin for Putin……the only rational world leader alive today.