Bulgaria not likely to join Schengen in March - report
Bulgaria will most likely fail to join the Schengen passport-free zone at the end of March, as the report concerning the control of the country's border with Turkey is negative, European diplomats told new agency AFP(Agence France-Presse).
At least ten European states, not just France and Greece, consider that Bulgaria and Romania should not join the Schengen area in the spring of 2011, according to the diplomats.
The EU Council of Ministers is expected to decide on the delay of bringing the two countries into the bloc's border-less travel zone at a meeting on February 24.
The country's defence minister Nickolay Mladenov, said as quoted by state-run radio BNR that the country should complete the technical preparations for joining Schengen by March and to make a significant progress on the judicial reform by the summer.
Meanwhile, Hungary's ambassador to Sofia, Judith Lang, stated that his country, which now holds the EU's rotating presidency, aims to ensure that a political decision on the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen will be taken by the end of June 2011.