European Commission expects positive outcome for Bulgaria and Schengen

Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia have undergone a thorough check, which showed that they fully meet all the requirements to be accepted into Schengen, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said on December 5.

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"Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia have been thoroughly examined and the result is that they meet all the requirements to be part of Schengen. In recent months there have been additional checks on Bulgaria and Romania at the request of some member states - they had additional questions and wanted clarifications. That is why we sent missions with high-level experts from these Member States to Bulgaria and Romania and they produced a report which I presented a few weeks ago on the subject of Schengen enlargement," she said.

Ylva Johansson said that the additional checks requested by some countries showed that Bulgaria and Romania had further increased the protection of external borders.

"Their assessment is that Bulgaria fulfils the criteria even more than at the beginning. Both Bulgaria and Romania have increased the level of protection of their external borders. So we don't have that information (about crossing the border for a payment of 50 BGN - ed. note) On Thursday, all the reports will be presented to the Council, from which it is clear that Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia fully meet the requirements to be full Schengen members and that is what I expect to be the outcome of the vote."

Commissioner for Promoting the European Way of Life and Commission Vice-President, Margaritis Schinas, commented that it is a myth to claim that Schengen means less control. According to him, the enlargement of Schengen will lead to more and better controls at the EU's external borders.

The vote on the accession of Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia to Schengen is due on 8 December.