BBC/
Bulgaria and Romania have been blocked from Europe's passport-free travel zone because of lobbying by Germany and France, who called their joining Schengen in March 2011 "premature."
The two interior ministers said Bulgaria and Romania needed to make "irreversible progress" in the fight against corruption and organized crime.
Romania denounced the decision. President Traian Basescu said: "I believe that the Franco-German letter sent to the European Commission is an act of discrimination against Romania."
Bulgaria said it would "do its utmost" to remove doubts about its membership.
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