EU – Baltic States, Latvia, Legislation, Transport

As LETA was informed by Interior Ministry spokeswoman Gunta Skrebele, already in 2011, during a meeting of EU justice and interior ministers, it was confirmed that Romania and Bulgaria had met all the pre-conditions to join the Schengen zone, but making a formal decision on this matter has been blocked.

Kozlovskis said during the meeting that the expansion of the Schengen zone is a sensitive matter for all those involved, and it also demands joint effort from all those involved.

''Romania and Bulgaria have met all the technical and legal pre-conditions to joint the Schengen area. Thus, we must respect this progress made by these two countries and continue moving forward to achieve a positive solution on this sensitive matter as soon as possible,'' Kozlovskis said.

The AFP news agency reports that the European Union on Thursday dismissed Bulgarian and Romanian calls to join Europe's Schengen passport-free zone, delaying any vote on the issue until at least the end of this year.

The 27-state EU bloc "decided to address this issue again by the end of 2013 with a view to considering the way forward," said a statement issued after a meeting of EU justice and home affairs ministers.

At the weekend, Germany had warned that it would veto Romania and Bulgaria joining the 26-country passport-free Schengen area if they pushed the issue at the meeting in Brussels.

German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told Spiegel news weekly that while the EU believed Romania and Bulgaria had made progress towards membership, both still needed to do much more to combat corruption.

Any move to expand the Schengen area, home to 400 million Europeans who can cross national jurisdictional borders without passports, needs a unanimous vote.

The Netherlands has also opposed moves to allow the two countries into the Schengen area amid concerns about an uncontrolled influx of illegal entrants.