Austria cut off Bulgaria and Romania from Schengen
Source：Sega Newspaper (Now Newspaper)
From：Taiwan Trade Center, Sofia
Update Time：2022/12/09
President Rumen Radev dropped his optimism and started talking that we could possibly enter next year
Austria and the Netherlands used the meeting in the Western Balkans in Tirana to announce publicly and officially that they remain adamant and cut Bulgaria from Schengen. At the same time, President Rumen Radev - also from the Albanian capital - made it clear that he had given up hope of entry now and was deferring future membership for next year.
First, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehamer stated that Austria opposes the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area.
"The Minister of the Interior made it clear. There is no approval from Austria for the enlargement with Bulgaria and Romania. More time is needed. We have 75,000 unregistered illegal immigrants in Austria. This means that they have crossed the external border of the European Union and ended up in a landlocked country like Austria. We have to answer these security questions first," Nehammer said.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte also made it clear that the Netherlands remains adamant and will cut Bulgaria out of Schengen. He diplomatically announced that he is optimistic that next year Bulgaria can take steps forward on its way to Schengen. Rutte also participated in Tirana in the European Union - Western Balkans summit, where he also made his statement.
"At this stage, it's not 'no' for Bulgaria, it's 'not yet'. More time will be needed for two reasons: a new assessment of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism, and the Schengen Verification Mechanism. I spoke with President Rumen Radev and I'm optimistic that next year we can take steps forward".
President Rumen Radev has obviously lost hope that Bulgaria will now be accepted into Schengen. "The work for our accession to Schengen continues at all levels of diplomacy, but there is work that must be done in Bulgaria as well," he told journalists after the EU-Western Balkans summit, quoted by BNT.
He called on the parties in our country, not to politicize the issue. His calls were unexpected, considering that it was his caretaker government that announced how it prepared retaliatory measures against Austria and the Netherlands if Bulgaria does not now enter Schengen.
The head of state called on the National Assembly to adopt the laws under the Recovery and Resilience Plan, which concern judicial reform. "This National Assembly must adopt the laws under the Recovery and Development Plan for judicial reform. We have every chance that Bulgaria will join next year, and I know this from conversations with our European partners, including Rutte. But this, to a large extent, depends on us and on how we will play in the field of diplomacy. We continue our efforts together with Romania until the last moment. There are sentiments against Bulgaria layered over years in certain EU countries. These prejudices, were justified, and where not, are very difficult to break. But I am convinced that if there is a unity of effort, we will succeed," the president said.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said in Tirana that Romania will negotiate until the last moment, Romania Journal informs.
"We are determined to remain decisive until the last moment and bring the solution to where we want it. We will not stop discussing and negotiating until the last moment. Given that the solutions regarding Romania and Bulgaria are not completely identical, the results cannot be completely the same either. This does not mean that a convenient solution formula cannot be found for both sides," said the head of state of Romania.
The decision on the extension of the Schengen area will be taken at the meeting of the Council of Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of the EU on Thursday and Friday. (the 8th and the 9th of December 2022)
Source: https://segabg.com/hot/category-bulgaria/avstriya-i-niderlandiya-ostavat-nepreklonni-i-rezhat-bulgariya-shengen