site.btaRomania's Foreign Minister to Pay Official Visit to Bulgaria

Romania’s Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu will pay an official visit to Sofia on Monday at the invitation of Bulgaria’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel, the Ministry’s press centre said.

The agenda of the visit includes a bilateral meeting with Gabriel and plenary talks between the two delegations. Bilateral and international matters will be discussed. Odobescu and Gabriel will also make a joint statement to the media.

According to a Council of the European Union decision dated December 30, 2023, air and maritime internal border controls with Bulgaria and Romania will be lifted as of March 31. Austria was the only EU Member State to object to the Schengen entry for the two countries. The European Commission has called for a positive decision on this matter "within a reasonable time frame".

In late January, Continue the Change MP Daniel Lorer and Romanian and Greek MEPs sent a letter to Greece’s Minister of Immigration and Asylum, Dimitris Kairidis, proposing the abolition of land border controls between Bulgaria, Greece, and Romania. A few days later, Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said that a one-sided abolition of land border controls between the three countries would be in conflict with EU rules.