Austria's veto for Schengen expansion is not related to Bulgaria, Austrian National Council President Wolfgang Sobotka and Bulgarian National Assembly Chair Rossen Zhelyazkov said here at a joint briefing on Tuesday. Sobotka's visit to Sofia is at the invitation of Zhelyazkov.
“It is clear that since 2015 the Schengen area has not functioned the way it should, the same applies to the Dublin agreement,” Sobotka stated. He noted that border controls are currently in place in many places in Europe.
"That is the reason why we vetoed Bulgaria's accession into the Schengen area, which I want to explicitly stress is not related to Bulgaria itself. Bulgaria is fulfilling its obligations with regard to the Schengen criteria. I personally had the opportunity to see this today at the Bulgarian-Turkish border," the Austrian National Council President explained.
He expressed hope that the talks between the interior ministers would lead to a satisfactory solution for all parties so that the Schengen area could finally start functioning again the way it should.
Zhelyazkov also confirmed that Austria's veto is not related to the fulfilment of the Schengen membership criteria, the management of migrant flows and Bulgaria’s handling of the protection of the EU's external border.
It has been established that the migrant flow through Bulgaria is an insignificant percentage compared to the other routes to reach Central Europe, he pointed out. At the same time, there is a reliable system in place, so there is no question of Austria's attitude towards Bulgaria, Zhelyazkov added.
“Our position is that the acession of Bulgaria and Romania will optimize the Schengen regime, will allow the concentration of more resources at the external borders, will favour the migration processes, including the readmission and asylum issues,” the National Assembly Chair stressed.
He expressed hope that the Bulgarian position would be well understood and articulated in Austrian society. “We expect that the trialogues related to the migration and asylum pact will be successfully concluded during the Spanish presidency by the end of this year, so that Austria's expectations will be met and Bulgaria will benefit from the lifting of the Austrian veto,” Zhelyazkov said.
The topic of EU expansion to the Western Balkan countries was also raised at the meeting between Sobotka, Zhelyazkov, and representatives of Bulgarian parliamentary groups. “We stressed that we do not set conditions regarding Skopje, but we are adamant that the beginning of the negotiation process can only start when the parliament in the Republic of North Macedonia votes for the change of the constitution and for the inclusion of the Bulgarians in it,” Zhelyazkov underlined.
Sobotka said that for Austria the integration of the Western Balkans into the EU is extremely important from the point of view of EU’s security and from the economic point of view as they are “aware of the influence in this region and the destabilization it could lead to”.
/RY/
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