PM Denkov: If admitted in Schengen, Bulgaria and Romania will be able to focus better on protecting EU's external borders

Emerging from a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer here on Tuesday, Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said: "If Bulgaria and Romania are inside Schengen, we will be able to support more effectively the processes that we want to happen in Europe, because we will be able to free human and material resources to better protect the external borders and focus on them." Denkov paid a one-day visit to Vienna in the hopes of changing Austria's position against Bulgaria and Romania joining the Schengen area.

He and Nehammer had a one-on-one meeting, followed by bilateral talks with the participation of the Bulgarian delegation, which included Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov and Deputy Foreign Minister Elena Shekerletova.

At a joint news conference with Chancellor Nehammer, the Bulgarian Prime Minister said that entry in Schengen means lowering the prices for transporting food products and other goods from Turkiye, Bulgaria, and Romania to Central and Eastern Europe. That also means cheaper foods, lower inflation and more political stability, he added.

"I want to thank the Chancellor because I know that he is also under a lot of pressure from domestic political forces and issues. Each of us has our own positions, but we have to talk and say the arguments, because we cannot find a commonly acceptable solution if we do not listen carefully to each other," the Bulgarian Prime Minister said.

He also said that the meetings he had had on Tuesday showed that Bulgaria and Romania have much more common ground than it seems at first sight. In his words, they have no differences on what needs to be done in Europe. "External borders need to be strengthened. We need to strengthen the treaties with the third countries from which the migrants come so that we can return those who have no right to stay here. We need to create a legal migration system that works much better than what Europe has at the moment. These are all common themes that for several years did not rise to the level of priority they deserve," Denkov said about the discussions in Vienna.

Denkov expressed confidence that talks on the issue would continue to be "frank and direct".

"If we have a difference with Austria, it is only in one thing - whether if Bulgaria and Romania were inside Schengen, they would help to find these solutions faster, or if we were outside, we could help them in some way", the Prime Minister stressed. "If we stay outside, we gain nothing, we lose", he noted. "We will be much more effective if Bulgaria and Romania are in Schengen," Denkov argued.

He recalled that the final decision will be announced in December, when the EU Council is due to meet.

During his visit to Vienna, Prime Minister Denkov also met with Georg Knill, President of the Federation of Austrian Industry, and senior managers of large Austrian companies operating on the Bulgarian market.