Bulgaria's Schengen Fate te Be Decided on March 27 2011
The decision on Bulgaria's potential Schengen entry is to be made on March 27 2011,m according to the EU Parliament's Deputy Chairman Rayner Wieland.
Wieland was on a visit to Bulgaria on Monday, where he had talks with the country's Parliamentary Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva on Bulgaria's Schengen readiness and other external topics.
"Every country should cover the Schengen criteria itself and this is not an easy task. I hope and I believe that Bulgaria will dcope with the difficulties over the next couple of months," Wieland stated.
When asked to comment the recent scandal, involving 192 current Bulgarian diplomats being revealed as former communist State Security agents, Wieland stated it is a problem the state itself must cope with.
Bulgaria submitted its formal declaration of readiness in September 2007 and sent European authorities follow-up reports, penning in March 2011 as the target date for accession to the Schengen zone.
Bulgaria and Romania's entry in the border-free zone anytime soon is under question, though. as France, the Netherlands, Germany and Austria expressing their reluctance about the two Balkan countries joining the Agreement 2011.
However, Bulgaria's entry in the Schengen zone will be one of the priorities of the Hungary's Presidency of the European Union, as Hungarian Interior Minister, Shandor Pinter recently stated.
Last Friday, the Bulgarian government vowed to spend a total of BGN 56 M (about EUR 28 M) state budget money on improving the country's border control as a part of Bulgaria's bid to join Schengen agreement.