Academician Denkov announced that the negotiations will continue
Delyan Peevski does not want us to agree with Austria’s proposal
The US has persuaded Austria to tone down its harsh tone on the Schengen admission of Bulgaria and Romania. This is what the authoritative Austrian publication “Standart” wrote after the news about the future abolition of border checks at the airports for both countries.
“Discussions with American officials were decisive for the change in Austria’s position regarding the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area,” the publication said. It names specific individuals who played a key role in Vienna’s surprising softening of the tone on Schengen enlargement.
We are talking about the former US ambassador to Austria Ronald Lauder and the US assistant secretary of state for Europe, James O’Brien. They discussed the topic with politicians in Vienna, as they considered Romania to be an important ally of the USA in Eastern Europe, writes “Standart”.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov commented that our country will insist that the negotiations continue until the last possible moment, as there was still something to be discussed.
Regarding Air Schengen, Denkov pointed out that this is a step in the right direction, as so far Austria’s position has been very firm. “This change now provides an opportunity for negotiations,” the prime minister also said.
Regarding migrants, however, he pointed out that he was not sure exactly what Austrian Interior Minister Karner had in mind. If it was about the observance of the European rules, under which some of the people caught in Austria, but registered in Bulgaria, must return to our country, this was still working at the moment. However, Sofia would not accept special conditions for migrants.
The leader of the DPS MPs, Delyan Peevski, defined the softening of Vienna’s position regarding Schengen as insufficient. In his opinion, our country should not agree.
MEP Andrey Kovachev commented that the two-stage admission of Bulgaria to the free travel zone – first with air borders, then with land borders – is not a new idea. He is adamant, however, that in order for this to happen, clear dates must be specified when it will come into force.
“Standart” reports that the next steps should be agreed on Monday and Tuesday at a conference of the interior ministers of the countries of the Salzburg Forum in Slovenia. It is an informal initiative for security cooperation established in 2001 at the initiative of Vienna. Currently, 9 countries from Central and Eastern Europe participate in the forum – Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said on Monday that he had presented the EC with “clear conditions” that it must meet before Vienna agrees to admit Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area.
“Now it’s your turn of the commission”,
he summed up.
Among the demands sent are a massive strengthening of the protection of the EU’s external border, the retention of land border checks and the transfer of asylum-seeking migrants from Austria to Bulgaria and Romania. It was about people passing through neighboring countries to reach Austria.
Karner wants to triple the number of border police and upgrade the technical equipment located especially on Bulgaria’s border with Turkey and Romania’s border with Serbia.
Karner indicated that he envisions dropping air checks for both countries as a first step, since of the slightly more than 50,000 asylum seekers in Austria, only about 150 migrants have passed through the airports anyway.
If his demands are met, passport checks for air travel could be abolished between Romania, Bulgaria and the Schengen countries.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that
the requests of Austria are not exaggerated
and that his country must strengthen its borders. He complained that the border systems were not integrated and explained how negotiations will continue for Romania to enter the Schengen area with its airports from March.
2023-12-11 21:15:00
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