site.btaBulgaria and Romania Will Continue Efforts to Join Schengen Together, Prime Ministers Say

Bulgaria and Romania will continue their efforts to join the Schengen area together and hope this will happen during the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union by the end of this year, the Prime Ministers of the two countries, Nikolay Denkov and Marcel Ciolacu, concurred in a telephone conversation Friday.

Improving connectivity between the two countries is also a common priority. This includes the construction of a new Danube bridge at Ruse-Giurgiu, as well as the launch of a ferry link between the two banks of the river to ease traffic until the new infrastructure is built.

Ciolacu welcomed his Bulgarian counterpart's proposal to strengthen trilateral cooperation on the South-North link within the framework of the Three Seas Initiative. This concerns the Alexandroupolis-Burgas-Varna-Constanta route, which has huge potential for development in the energy, transport, trade and IT sectors. "If we manage to implement this project, the links between Greece, Bulgaria and Romania" will go to a qualitatively new level", said Denkov.

Bulgaria and Romania will continue to cooperate closely regarding the risk of pollution of the Black Sea due to Russia's aggression in Ukraine. Both monitor sea water indicators and exchange information continuously. At the same time, they are determined to oppose malicious attempts to exaggerate the problem, which could jeopardise the summer tourist season in both countries.