The Bulgarian Member of Parliament, Andrey Novakov, said that Bulgaria and Romania should remove their border controls if they are not accepted into the Schengen Area by the end of this year.
According to Novakov, the two countries should work with each other to facilitate movement and the same stressed that the obstacles of the two countries to join the Schengen are no longer linked to Austrian and Dutch vetoes.
As Euractiv explains, Novakov said in an interview for Nova TV that the long waiting times cost truck drivers hundreds. He also emphasised that many truck drivers choose alternative roads as they do not want to wait at the border.
“For every day lost at the border, a truck loses €200 to its owner. Many of the drivers quit because they don’t want to hang at the borders,” the statement of Novakov reads.
He further said that the two countries’ authorities record numerous irregular border crossing attempts, encouraging the authorities to take measures on the matter.
While Austria continues to remain against Bulgaria and Romania joining the Schengen, Novakov said that the Austrian authorities are trying to be more appealing to the country’s population before the elections by saying that they want to stop irregular migration to the country.
However, Novakov stressed that the security of Austria does not depend on whether the two countries join the Schengen.
According to Euractiv, the Prime Minister of Bulgaria, Nikolay Denkov, and the Prime Minister of Romania, Ion-Marcel Ciolacu, met earlier this week in Athens to discuss a strategy for the admission of the two countries to the Schengen Area.
It has been explained that during the meeting, Prime Minister Denkov said that lifting the border controls between Bulgaria and Romania and Bulgaria and Greece would have an important impact on better protection of the external border of the European Union.
Moreover, it was stressed that there would no longer be long waiting queues, leading to less carbon emissions.
The two countries’ prime ministers also said they want to build a new bridge over the Danube, launching a ferry line between Bulgaria’s Ruse and Romania’s Giurgevo.
Despite the attempts the authorities of the two countries are making, Austria just recently said that its stance against the expansion of Schengen remains unchanged. The Ministry of Interior of Austria said that there is no point in expanding the Schengen as long as the system “Schengen” does not work.
