Authorities in Hungary have threatened to veto Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Area if Sofia does not abolish its transit tax on Russian gas.
While the membership of Bulgaria to the passport-free travel zone has finally been supported by the Netherlands, the recent comments from the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Peter Szijjarto, risk further prolonging the finalisation of this process.
According to a report from Reuters, Sofia introduced a transit tax on Russian gas in October this year, thus threatening to increase the prices of Hungarian imports flowing through the Turkish Stream pipeline.
We have made it clear to the Bulgarians that if they keep this in place for long, if they jeopardise the safety of Hungary’s energy supply for long, then we will veto their Schengen entry
Hungarian authorities promised that as soon as the tax was abolished, the veto would be lifted.
The Bulgarian ruling coalition opted to suspend the tax temporarily after discussions with the European Commission. The suspension will remain effective until the European Commission introduces a better solution.
This tax shouldn’t be unilateral from Bulgaria’s side, but we should work with the European Commission. Such a tax can only be imposed with all European countries, in a way that would actually have an effect on the economy and the Russian Federation.
In addition, according to a report from Kyiv Independent, another ex-prime minister and the leader of the PP’s coalition partner GERB, since Sofia is quite close to Schengen accession, all the obstacles should be removed.
Bulgaria’s membership to the passport-free travel zone was opposed by the Netherlands and Austria on December 8 last year over irregular migration concerns.
However, recently, the Ministry of Justice of the Netherlands has confirmed that the Dutch Republic will no longer be an obstacle to Sofia’s membership in the Schengen Zone.
In addition to the Netherlands, Vienna also opposed Bulgaria’s membership. Recently, Austria presented a new plan called “Air Schengen” that would allow citizens of Romania and Bulgaria to travel to Schengen Zone states by air without being obliged to pass through passport controls.
While introducing the four conditions that would help the inclusion of these two countries in the Schengen Area, the Interior Minister of Austria, Gerhard Karner, stressed that the rules might be loosened only for air travel. However, land border crossing would still be restricted.
