site.btaEC Declines Comment on Idea for Scrapping Land Border Checks between Bulgaria, Greece, Romania

The European Commission Friday declined to comment on a proposal for lifting land border controls between Bulgaria, Greece and Romania. Bulgarian, Romanian and Greek politicians have sent a proposal to this effect in a letter to Greece's Migration and Asylum Minister Dimitris Kairidis.

European Commission Chief Spokesperson Eric Mamer said: "We will certainly not comment on the content of a letter that is neither addressed to us nor has been seen by us. The functioning of Schengen, the role or the part of Schengen that currently apply to Romania and Bulgaria is very well known, the adaptations to that that have been agreed by all Member States are also very well known - that is the situation that we are in, we are not going to speculate on anything that might come on top of this until such time as further decisions would be taken. As you very well know, the steps that have been taken have required some time and have required negotiations between the Member States and therefore we are now in a new situation which has relaxed the border controls up to a point for certain types of travel to the rest of the EU."

European Commission Spokesperson Anitta Hipper said: "At the end of the year, basically on December 30, the Council unanimously agreed on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area. It is a huge achievement and we are welcoming the fact that Bulgaria and Romania will start to apply the Schengen acquis in full as of March 31. The lifting of controls of air and sea borders will take place as of March 31 and this is due to the very hard work done by Romania and Bulgaria and also due to their political commitment and determination."