Media recorded reactions in Sofia to
a potential gradual withdrawal of Austria's veto on Bulgaria's
accession to Schengen if Sofia agrees to changes at the level of
air borders.
"I can imagine changes at the airport level for Bulgaria and
Romania," said Interior Minister Austrian Gerhard Karner. He
added, however, that it should
be necessary to meet certain 'conditions,' such as strengthening
the protection of the external borders of the EU, intensifying
land border controls, and ensuring better management of asylum
seekers.
The media in Sofia underlined that with this last condition,
Karner
would ask Bulgaria to take in Afghan and Syrian migrants
expelled from Austria. "Bulgaria should join the Schengen area
in its own right, including on land and sea, as it has fulfilled
all the requirements," commented Bulgarian Parliament Speaker
Rossen Zhelyazkov. "An EU country like Austria cannot afford to
impose conditions, without having a mandate from the EU
Commission or all EU countries, conditions that go beyond
meeting
the criteria for Schengen membership,'" he added. Premier
Nikolay Denkov of Bulgaria called Karner's words "a step in the
right direction."
"We will not, however, accept any special conditions for
entering the Schengen area," Denkov pointed out. "They are
throwing crumbs to us, and it is a contemptuous and humiliating
attitude for Bulgaria, which is a country EU in its own right,"
he commented before reporters Korneila Ninova, the leader of the
Socialist Party (BSP), the main opposition party.
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