site.btaKuneva: "Bulgaria Is Neither Inside nor Outside Schengen, We Are Literally in No Man's Land"

Kuneva: "Bulgaria Is Neither Inside nor Outside Schengen, We Are Literally in No Man's Land"

Brussels, October 12 (BTA Correspondent Nikolay Jeliazkov) - Talking to Bulgarian journalists in Brussels, Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva said: "Bulgaria is neither inside nor outside Schengen, we are literally in no man's land." She was commenting on the latest postponement of Bulgaria's and Romania's accession to the border-free area.

Kuneva said: "If we are outside Schengen, we can do something together with the countries outside Schengen. Being in no man's land, Bulgaria and Romania can no longer protect their own and Europe's security."

She added that the anti-corruption bill rejected by Parliament on first reading should have been adopted on time. "Three months later is not the same as three months earlier, these are not just any three months but the time when Bulgaria's fate in Schengen was being decided. It was very important what signal we would send," said Kuneva. Bulgaria has already received rather clear signals that it must tackle corruption, according to her.

Commenting on the latest polls in Belgium which showed that 75 per cent of the population wants the frontiers restored, Kuneva said that some of the countries which did not oppose Bulgaria's entry in the Schengen area deeply deplored that this was an extremely difficult moment. "In diplomacy and politics there is something called 'catching the moment'. I insisted in June that we should make an effort to join Schengen," Kuneva explained. At the time a large EU Member State suggested October as the deadline so that the public opinion would be prepared. "We did not show perseverance, we let this moment slip away."

Kuneva said that she will raise the question about Schengen at Tuesday's General Affairs Council meeting.

Asked about Bulgaria's position on the European Commission's proposal to put Turkey on a list of "safe countries" to which migrants can be quickly returned as they would not risk oppression, Kuneva said that the Government has not adopted a decision on the matter. She expressed the opinion that Bulgaria will rather support the Commission's proposal.

"I am missing one question from the big European picture: to what extent the EU may accept refugees. If we simply observe the conventions, we will fulfill an international obligation. However, the observation of the European policy on refugees is related to their opportunity to work and use Europe's social achievements. This goes beyond what is envisaged in the international conventions. The moment when Europe will say, "We cannot accept more [refugees] because we cannot give jobs and social security to these people," is a question which someone has to raise at some point," Kuneva said.

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Speaking at a news conference in Brussels on Monday,
Deputy Prime Minister for European Policies, Coordination and Institutional Affairs Meglena Kuneva said, quoted by the Government Information Service, that Bulgaria supports Denmark's request that the EU does not hold meetings of euro zone members on matters other than problems of the monetary union. Bulgaria joins the letter of nine Members States outside the euro zone that protest against the October 5 meeting between labour ministers of euro zone members only. According to the nine Member States, meetings in such a format are counter-productive to the efforts to integrate the internal market and go against the the principle of equal treatment of all member countries.