Bulgaria has to convince people in Austria, not only the politicians, that it is ready to join the Schengen Zone, Bulgaria’s President, Ruman Radev, has said.
His comments came during the General Debates of the 78th United Nations General Assembly session.
We have to convince this Austrian society that Bulgaria is a reliable member not only of the EU, that Bulgaria is doing everything possible to protect its borders, that Bulgaria deserves to be in Schengen so that society can help the politicians to make this decision, because the politicians in Austria are worried about the elections, and the people vote there.
The head of state encouraged the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Nikolai Denkov, to visit Austria as soon as possible. He also called on Denkov to invite Austrian Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, stressing that he has an ongoing dialogue with the President so that Bulgaria’s voice can be heard more.
On September 15, the European Commission closed the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) for Bulgaria and Romania, which was introduced in 2007 upon the accession of these two Balkan countries to the bloc as a transitional measure to ease progress in the fields of judicial reform and anti-corruption.
Welcoming the decision, the President of the European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, stressed that work can now continue under the annual rule of law cycle for all EU Member States.
The rule of law is one of our fundamental common values as a Union, and both member states have delivered on important reforms in these past years.
However, its accession of Bulgaria to the EU’s passport-free zone was vetoed by Austria and Netherlands in December last year, upon illegal migrant concerns, ceasing Bulgarian citizens’ hopes who have been waiting for this process to be finalised for over ten years.
In order to become part of the Schengen Zone, unanimous backing from all EU countries is needed. However, in spite of hopes that Bulgaria could become the newest member of the Schengen Zone, the process continues to be opposed by authorities in Austria.
Recently, the Ministry of the Interior of Austria told SchengenVisaInfo.com that Austria’s position remains unchanged, stressing that as long as the Schengen system does not work, there is no point in expanding it.
Furthermore, the Ministry said that the migration pressure remains high, which, according to authorities in Austria, is a clear sign that external border protection clearly does not work.
