site.btaGERB Leader Borissov: Bulgaria Should Have Regular Government and Ensure Protection of External Borders

Bulgaria should have a regular government immediately and ensure the protection of its external borders, said GERB leader Boyko Borissov, who chairs the foreign policy committee of the 50th National Assembly on Tuesday. He was participating in a discussion entitled "The cost of non-membership of Schengen for the Single Market: Impact on Bulgaria and Romania". The forum is held in Sofia and is organized by the Bulgarian Industrial Association (BIA) in cooperation with the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC).

A week before the elections in Austria it is hardly the best time to talk about this, Borissov said. “I have always seen Europe as a family, but in this family everyone has a task. Has Bulgaria done its task in the past four years? Absolutely not. How should I collect the nerve to stand before the Austrian chancellor and say that in recent years the Schengen external border has been well protected,” Boyko Borissov said. 

“From David Cameron to Viktor Orban, they came to our border to learn. The Balkan route was shut,” he pointed out. In Borissov's words, Bulgaria should assure its friends and partners in Austria that it guards the external borders of the European Union well, but this can only happen if there is stable governance, Borissov said. We were setting an example, he added.

"That is why I maintained the friendship with Turkiye, because of the European Union. Now the Balkan route is open. Every day or every other day, there are 10, 20 illegal migrants", he stressed.

Borissov also said that Bulgaria and Romania are like "docked vessels", not only on the issue of full Schengen membership. "By God’s will we are neighbours and should help each other," he added. "When the Schengen issue was being resolved, the Austrian business wrote a letter to its government in which its interests and the interests of Bulgaria coincided," Borissov further said. 

Border controls by air and sea were lifted on March 31 for Bulgaria and Romania. In July, a report by the Institute of Economic Research with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, showed that the direct losses for Bulgaria from the delay of full accession to Schengen amounted to over EUR 400 million. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson in June expressed the expectation that by the end of the year land controls will be lifted for Bulgaria and Romania.