The recent fundamental reform of the Schengen Agreement allowing the reintroduction of internal border checks by member nations has been inspired by Bulgaria and Romania.

This was stated by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in an interview for EurActiv. Rutte likened the monitoring scheme, the "Cooperation and Verification Mechanism", imposed on Bulgaria and Romania when they joined the European Union in 2007.

"In the future, all countries will be evaluated against the new system," Rutte said, adding that this was "the good news". "In the future you don't need to go to CVM-type procedures, while on Bulgaria and Romania we have an existing type of procedure, which we will orderly follow," he said.

The leaders of the EU member states have agreed to reform the borderless Schengen Area with a "safeguard mechanism" to allow for reintroduction of internal border checks by member nations.

The reform motion was approved by the EU Council on Friday after the 25-member Schengen Agreement has been under strain from migration pressures for months. While providing for the wider use of border checks by member states, however, the reform is also expected to require that any reintroduction of checks be coordinated on the EU level.

The Schengen system has been under pressure after a rise in the number of illegal migrants from Arab countries in North Africa flooded Italy, and led to a conflict between Italy and France, leading to calls to make it easier to reintroduce internal border controls.

Although the Working Group on Schengen Matters (Sch-Eval) at the Council of EU has unanimously approved the report on Bulgaria's technical preparedness, countries like France, Germany and the Netherlands have questioned the country's ability to guard EU's external borders.

According to Mark Rutte, the bloc is not putting extra measures on Schengen to make it more difficult for the EU newcomers to enter the border-free area. "There is a CVM system, in July there will be a report, and in September the accession issue will be again on the agenda of the Justice and Home Affairs Council," he pointed out.

Last Thursday, Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov declared his country will insist on joining the Schengen zone under the current conditions, and only then will consider complying with additional criteria.

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