Austrian President Alexander van der Bellen approves the membership of Bulgaria and Romania in Schengen. He stated this to journalists after inviting the representatives of the International Press Union in the country to a meeting today at his official residence – the Hofburg Palace in Vienna.
He answered questions related to current international issues related to the war in Ukraine, the war in the Middle East after the terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel, European politics and domestic political topics.
“You know that my opinion differs from that of the government, which imposed a veto, and despite the recommendation of the European Commission to accept Bulgaria and Romania, does not back down. And it argues its decision with the migrants who arrive in Austria, but they do not come from Bulgaria and Romania, and from Hungary,” said the head of state, quoted by BTA, and continued:
“I think that the government should better protect its investment interests and not only in the financial sector. Austria is an investor in both countries. Let me add that tens of thousands of nurses from Romania work in our country, taking care of elderly and sick people”.
Bulgaria and Romania failed to enter the Schengen area precisely because of the veto by Austria and the Netherlands, and their main argument was the increasing migration pressure.
Our position is that the acceptance of Bulgaria and Romania will optimize the Schengen regime, will allow the concentration of more resources on the external borders, will favor migration processes, including and the readmission and asylum issues, said the speaker of the Bulgarian parliament. He expressed hope that the Bulgarian position will be well understood and articulated in the Austrian society. We expect that during the Spanish Presidency, at the end of this year, the trilogues related to the pact on migration and asylum will be successfully concluded, so that the expectations of Austria will be satisfied and Bulgaria will benefit from the removal of the Austrian veto, said the President of the National Assembly, Rosen Zhelyazkov at the beginning of October after a meeting with the chairman of the National Council of Austria, Wolfgang Sobotka.
2023-11-09 18:39:31
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