JUSTICE & HOME AFFAIRS: DEFENDING ENLARGEMENT OF SCHENGEN AREA.

While France and Germany want to push back the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area, in which there are no checks at internal frontiers, to the summer of 2011, the Hungarian Presidency intends the accession to take place during its term at the helm in the first half of 2011. Bucharest and Sofia are hoping to join the club in March.

The enlargement of the Schengen area to two Eastern European countries will in fact be one of the most complex issues that Budapest will have to deal with during its Presidency. It will be all the more complex given that the country wants to launch a European strategy in favour of Roma, at the heart of a dispute between France and the European Commission a few months ago.

"The Schengen area without checks at internal borders is one of the...