site.btaJoint Contingent from Bulgaria, Austria, Romania, and Hungary Begins Bulgarian-Turkish Border Security Operations

An official ceremony is set to take place in Svilengrad, South-Central Bulgaria to mark the commencement of operations by a joint contingent of personnel from Bulgaria, Austria, Romania, and Hungary to guard the Bulgarian-Turkish border, the Ministry of the Interior said here on Monday.

Interior Minister Daniel Mitov is set to host the event and welcome his counterparts, Catalin Predoiu from Romania and Sandor Pinter from Hungary, along with a delegation led by Austria's Director-General for Public Safety in the Ministry of the Interior Franz Ruf.

The delegations' programme includes a visit to the green border area near the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint, the signing of a joint document regulating the contingent's actions by the heads of the competent structures in the presence of the ministers, and a media briefing.

In late November 2024, then-caretaker Interior Minister Atanas Ilkov mentioned that a joint team of 100 border officers from Bulgaria, Austria, Romania, and Hungary was set to be deployed for security at the Bulgarian-Turkish border. The four countries agreed that safeguarding the EU's external borders should be a collective duty, Ilkov said at the time.

At the beginning of 2025, Border Police Director Anton Zlatanov said: "Bulgaria will not allow any migrant pressure at its border with Greece," on the occasion of Bulgaria's full membership in Schengen.

He added that the annual analysis conducted throughout the year had indicated a 70% decrease in entry attempts and a 46% reduction in successful entries into the country. The realistic objective for this year is to sustain these numbers rather than improve them, Zlatanov concluded.