Acceleration of the process depends on the legislative activity of Parliament, head of State says in Brussels
Bulgaria is on track to achieve a precise and irreversible deadline for Schengen accession, President Rumen Radev told journalists in Brussels and expressed confidence that this country will join the Schengen area in 2023. It is high time we take our rightful equal place in the European family, the Head of State said.
Ahead of his participation in today's regular European Council meeting, the President said that Bulgaria insists on a commitment with clear timeframes and very precise admission criteria. The latest our accession could happen is in October. We will do our best to speed up this deadline and be accepted earlier, Rumen Radev said. In his words, faster Schengen accession depends a lot on the National Assembly and the adoption in January of important laws related to the responsibility of the prosecutor general and anti-corruption legislation.
As a success, the President pointed out that for the first time since 2011 Bulgaria received strong support from 24 member states and the European institutions. They appreciate all the efforts we are making to secure the common border, to fight illegal trafficking of migrants, to fight secondary migration, Rumen Radev said, adding that this country is also receiving recognition that more and more illegal trafficking networks have been uncovered recently, some of them transnational. For the first time, we now have police officers who are being investigated for migrant trafficking. Instead of turning a blind eye, we are pursuing illegal trafficking on our roads, the President said, and expressed regret that we are also losing lives in these efforts.
In the head of State's words, the demands of the Netherlands and Austria are being clarified in dialogue with these countries. We are narrowing the scope of their criteria and we expect them to finally be precise and clear, the head of state said, adding that the two countries' considerations are of a domestic political nature.
The President stressed that joining the Schengen area would have a positive effect on both the economy and the quality of life in Bulgaria. Joining Schengen means that the huge queues at our borders with Greece and Romania will be eliminated and our producers will be able to gain noticeably faster access to other markets, the President said, adding that this will have a positive effect on attracting foreign investments, on tourism and on the transport sector, which accounts for a large share of the country's gross domestic product. Most importantly - this is a fight for our dignity, because Bulgaria has always been an integral and important part of the cultural and historical development of Europe, Rumen Radev said.
Responding to a question, Rumen Radev said that the best approach is to accept Romania and Bulgaria together; otherwise, it would be a 'lost cause'. Asked whether there was a possibility to establish a Schengen border between Bulgaria and Romania, the President said that now this is not possible because our northern neighbour did not have the technical readiness for this.
We are all convinced that Bulgaria should have a regular government and we all see how difficult it is to form such a government, so any attempt in this direction should be encouraged, the head of State said in response to a question about the deadline for handing over the second mandate to form a regular cabinet within the 48th National Assembly. The second-largest political force will also be given additional time to form a government, which should be used both to form a cabinet and to pass important laws, not for electioneering, President Radev said, reiterating that he expects the parties to take clear political responsibility.