European institutions are preparing to admit Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen this year, with visa-free travel by air expected in October, followed by the abolition of land border controls by 1 January, diplomatic sources in Brussels and the Bulgarian parliament and government told EURACTIV.
According to sources in Sofia, Bulgaria has serious chances, if it exerts diplomatic pressure and shows a desire to continue reforms, to achieve full Schengen membership as early as October this year, by joining with its air borders, and the perspective for full membership with the land borders from January 2024.
Until a month ago, the biggest obstacle to Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen was the opposition of the Netherlands.
Mark Rutte’s government has given informal signals that it appreciates the efforts of the Bulgarian parliament and the last four governments to initiate real judicial reform with the introduction of a mechanism for an independent investigation of the chief prosecutor, which was adopted at the end of May.
The previous Bulgarian chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev, who did not have a particularly good reputation in Brussels, became the first victim of the new legislation after he was dismissed from his post last week. The expectation is that the cleaning of the judicial system will continue.
The second major reason for removing obstacles to Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen is the election of a regular government in Sofia after a protracted political crisis during which caretaker government appointed by the President Rumen Radev were in charge.
The government consists of ministers of the coalition We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria, supported by GERB, represented by Deputy Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel.
Among other things, the new government has declared its intention to revise Radev’s policy towards Ukraine and decided that the country will be represented at the upcoming NATO summit by Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov, and not by the president.
According to sources, the country’s European partners hope that the common big goals, including the objectives to join Schengen and the eurozone, will keep the coalition together.
In July, the European Commission will publish the latest report under the Cooperation and Verification mechanism, which is being prepared at the insistence of the Netherlands. The report is expected to be broadly positive, acknowledging political will to continue the reforms.
Austria’s objections to Schengen expansion amid the refugee crisis have not dropped, but the expectation is that Vienna will no longer use its veto if it is isolated.
In December last year, Austria and the Netherlands blocked Bulgaria’s Schengen membership. Romania was stopped by only Austria.
Romania’s new Prime Minister Ion-Marcel Ciolacu, announced earlier this week in an interview with EURACTIV that he had tasked his ministers with a plan to persuade Austria to lift its veto on Romania’s Schengen admission.
The next major goal of the Bulgarian institutions is the country’s accession to the eurozone from 1 January 2025.
While the Netherlands is asking the Bulgarian authorities to prove that they are fighting corruption and have not given up on judicial reform, Austria’s demands appear far more challenging to implement.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has been pushing for a new EU-financed fence along the border with Turkey, a proposal rejected by the European Commission.
Earlier this month, the EU executive granted new financial assistance to Romania and Bulgaria for the implementation of already launched pilot projects for border management. The aid for Bulgaria is €45 million, and for Romania – €10.8 million.
In addition, the European Commission welcomes the progress made in the last three months by both countries in the areas of asylum and return of illegal immigrants, border management and international cooperation – progress that should allay Austria’s fears that Sofia and Bucharest are not doing enough to register irregular migrants.
(Krassen Nikolov, Emiliya Milcheva | EURACTIV.bg, Aurélie Pugnet | EURACTIV.com)
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