Romania and Bulgaria should not enter the Schengen Agreeement together, Romania's Foreign Minister Teodor Baconschi has stated after claiming just the opposite a day earlier.

"We would like to see the two countries entering at the same date but ... we are still insisting on the principle that you need to evaluate each candidate state on its individual merits," Baconschi told EUobserver in an interview in Brussels on Tuesday (1 February).

Bulgaria and Romania, which have been coupled ever since their joint accession to the European Union in 2007, aim to enter the border-less zone in March this year, claiming that all requirements for it had been met.

Accession is uncertain, however, since a report on the security of Bulgaria's frontier with Turkey was negative.

"We don't need to [wait] and it is a risk to renounce that principle because this is the most fair and objective criteria."

In December, France together with Germany vowed to veto the entry of Bulgaria and Romania based on concerns that relate not to the legally mandated criteria, but rather to issues with corruption and crime that are dealt with by the so-called Co-operation and Verification Mechanism set up for the two EU newcomers.

"From a legal and political point of view it is incorrect to establish such a connection between the two issues," said Baconschi. "We think CVM is useful, so long as it is used for its original purpose of promoting judicial reform."

This, warns Baconschi, threatens to fuel Romanian euroscepticism and further aggravate tensions between old and new EU member states.

"We are not in the Desert of Tartars, just to wait without any date for our accession," he said. "It is a matter of responsibility and if we really want to continue the European process we have to play by the rules."

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