Bulgaria rejects “migrants for Schengen” offer

Bulgaria has categorically rejected the request to accept more migrants on its territory in exchange for Austria lifting its veto on Schengen accession, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov announced on Tuesday while answering questions from citizens on Facebook.

News broke out over the weekend that Austria is reportedly proposing to ‘partially’ lift its veto on Bulgaria and Romania’s Schengen accession bid, as it proposes the abolishment of airport passport checks in both countries as long as the latter two countries accept to take in more irregular migrants than under current EU quotas.

“We will see next week where the boundary of acceptable and unacceptable conditions for Schengen will be,” Denkov said in response to a question on Facebook.

He added that Bulgaria will not accept additional conditions that do not correspond to what is expected from other EU countries, noting that Austria’s proposal for Romania and Bulgaria is more of a “convenience”.

“This is a problem not only for the Bulgarian business but also for the Austrian one. That is why we are continuing the negotiations with the idea that we can advance in this direction as well,” said Denkov, adding that “negotiations will continue until the last working day of this year,”

Asked by a Facebook user whether Bulgaria would join Romania in taking the case to the EU Court of Justice should Schengen remain a pipe dream, Denkov said that the country should be pragmatic.

“If legal proceedings are started, it will take years, and during that time, we will be blocked for Schengen without the possibility of a solution,” he commented.

Commenting on Romania’s approach to Schengen, Denkov pointed to some inconsistency but was convinced that the positions will eventually be balanced.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov saw progress for Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen after a meeting during the Salzburg Forum in Slovenia, according to an official statement by the Bulgarian Interior Ministry.

Stoyanov took part in a tripartite meeting with the interior ministers of Austria and Romania, Gerhard Karner and Catalin Predoiu, where he outlined Bulgaria’s position for full Schengen membership.

GERB leader and former prime minister Boyko Borissov also spoke on the matter Tuesday, commenting, “Austrians say Bulgaria should go back three years, as it was while Boyko Borissov’s government was in power, and everything will be fine.”

“That’s what the Austrians say,” said Borissov, whose GERB government saw its bid to join Schengen blocked three years ago by many other Western European countries, including the Netherlands, on corruption grounds.

“We have no useful move if we don’t tighten up and work – on the one hand, diplomacy, on the other hand, laws, on the third hand, migration,” Borissov said.

“We just need to go back to the time before the ‘change’,” he said, despite Bulgaria having no chance at joining Schengen under his rule.

(Krassen Nikolov | Euractiv.bg)

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