Dutch PM Mark Rutte: If it was my decision, Bulgaria would have been accepted as a full member of Schengen immediately

Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said that if he could decide, Bulgaria would have been accepted as a full member of Schengen immediately, including for land borders.

Rutte talked with Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov in The Hague on February 8. The focus of the talks was on key priorities for Bulgaria, such as entry into the land-based Schengen zone and Bulgaria’s membership in the euro area. The Prime Minister of the Netherlands pledged support for our country's accession to the Schengen area by land as well.

"If it was my decision, Bulgaria would have been accepted as a full member of Schengen immediately, including for land borders. For political reasons this is proving impossible for now, but I am optimistic that in the months after mid-March Bulgaria will fully join Schengen and I will do everything I can, including in cooperation with other countries, with Romania and Austria, to make this happen," he said.

"Bulgaria has very strong support from the Netherlands in particular, but also from many other countries, Germany, Spain, which have always supported us. It was important that this support from the Netherlands be completed after the changes we made in the constitution, in the justice system, all this helped the Netherlands to say "we are closing this file" and with that to help us to take the step forward. What Mark Rutte added today is that they continue to support us and what he also added is that he will work with other countries, obviously meaning Austria in particular, to help us take the last step in this direction", said Nikolay Denkov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria.

The two prime ministers discussed issues on the European agenda, including security issues in the European Union.

"In recent months we have been working very hard to strengthen NATO's eastern flank. We are developing our cooperation with our neighbours Turkey and Romania for joint defence forces in the region. And here we have discussed in detail how to continue this development in the coming months and years. Part of this process is to help Ukraine in various aspects - military, but also energy, humanitarian, with the significant number of Ukrainian refugees living in Bulgaria. We care about people, but we also care about security, because in the end this will prove decisive for the development of events in Ukraine," Denkov said.

The war in Ukraine is also our war, the Dutch PM pointed out, and highlighted as particularly important the problem of disinformation and the hybrid war that Russia is waging. Rutte is of the opinion that although Bulgaria is not yet a member of the eurozone, the country is making serious progress in this direction as well. He even said that he envied us for our low debt. Inflation is still a problem in his words, but he is confident that we will deal with that soon.