Government: Negotiations with Austria for our full acceptance into Schengen continue next year
Romania announced that Sofia and Bucharest will be accepted by air and water into the common European space in March 2024
"The date for land borders has not been specified for Bulgaria and Romania. Austria has made a commitment to continue the talks and negotiations". This was announced by Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov at a joint briefing with Deputy Prime Minister Maria Gabriel and Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov in the Council of Ministers on the occasion of Bulgaria's entry into Schengen by air and water in 2024.
"Without the extremely important laws voted by the National Assembly and the parties that supported them, the veto of the Netherlands would not have been lifted," said Denkov.
"In order to have a positive result, a role is played by several institutions. I especially want to emphasize the role of the National Assembly, which in recent months adopted a number of laws, awaited for years, which were related to the expectations of the Netherlands and the European Commission to establish the rule of law in Bulgaria," Denkov pointed out.
In an official announcement on the website of the Romanian Ministry of the Interior, information appeared, according to which Bulgaria and Romania will enter Schengen by air and water in March 2024. The partial acceptance of our country into Schengen was also confirmed by Prime Minister Denkov before the start of today's meeting.
"It is a principle of our office not to release information before the negotiations on various topics, which are complex and important, have been completed. Since the Romanian government has provided information to their media, from there to our media some information on the still ongoing negotiations, we decided to tell what has been happening in the last days and weeks," he said.
Denkov added that the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Maria Gabriel, as well as the Ministry of Internal Affairs, also played a key role in the negotiations.
In turn, Gabriel said that at the end of March, air and sea border controls will be abolished, and land border controls will also be abolished at a later stage.
The last few days have been a culmination, not only because of all the years of hard work, months of persistence and results, but also because of the numerous intensive hours of negotiations on the details already on the days of December 22 and 23, as well as renewed negotiations since December 26, commented more Gabriel.