A letter sent by the Interior ministers of France and Germany to European Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom, claiming the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen in March 2011 would be premature, prompted a strong reaction from Romanian authorities. Romania President Traian Basescu said in a press statement on Tuesday that the letter was an act of discrimination against Romania.

President Basescu in his statement

I believe the letter of the two ministers is an act of discrimination against RomaniaAt the latest European Council I showed Romania is technically prepared [for Schengen accession]The introduction of new conditions comes against the rights obtained by Romania on its EU accession and creates an unacceptable precedentRomania set as a target the Schengen accession in April 2011, a date when we believe it can meet all conditionsA country's accession to Schengen is based only on technical conditionsAll reports - including the latest, in December - that showed Romania's technical preparation showed we meet the technical terms. The letter contains real facts of ours, which cannot be challenged because I myself and many others signaled them frequentlyIt is about the functioning of justice and state institutionsWe still have major issues with the functioning of the Superior Council of Magistrates (CSM) and the way CSM elections took place, which rose many question marks about some of CSM members who serve for the second termNot least, considering the recent weeks, I saw that the Parliament did not understand that decisions to protect some of its members from a judicial perspective. It is a risk that the Parliament assumed, but by which it provided an additional issue of analysis, that in Romania politics protects people who are allegedly involved in acts of corruptionI stand by my statement that accession to Schengen is an issue linked to complyin