PM Denkov in response to President's call on government to ensure full accession to Schengen: If it were so easy, the caretaker government would have done it

Any appeals of a general nature do not help, the Schengen negotiations require delicacy, calmness and arguments to be heard on the other side. This is how Prime Minister, Nikolai Denkov, on December 22 commented on President Rumen Radev's call to the government to ensure the country's full accession to Schengen by the end of the year.

President Radev: I urge the government to ensure Bulgaria's full Schengen accession by the New Year

"If it were so easy to do, the caretaker government would have done it last year. So any comments on what and how it could have been done are redundant at the moment. We need calm in order to conclude the negotiations in a positive way," Denkov said.

The Netherlands' decision to give the green light for Bulgaria's Schengen membership puts our country in a better position in the negotiations with Austria, he added.

"Negotiations are ongoing and will be concluded in a way that takes into account Austria's concerns because it has a serious problem with migration," the Prime Minister explained.

Regarding Head of State Rumen Radev's intentions to refer the changes in the basic law to the Constitutional Court, Denkov said the President was an interested party because of the limitation of his powers to elect a caretaker Prime Minister.

"The changes to the Constitution have been coordinated with both the Venice Commission and the European Commission. If anybody thinks that anybody, like the EC, for example, is raping the Constitution, let them say so clearly."

The President is a stakeholder with regard to changes relating to the caretaker government. It is clear why these changes are being made, because the caretaker government, in the situation that we have had in the last two years, has ended up governing for long periods without parliamentary scrutiny, including accepting long-term commitments and contracts, which is not the purpose of a caretaker government. The purpose of the caretaker government is to organise elections," Denkov said.

The Prime Minister discussed the problems in demographic policy at a meeting at the Council of Ministers, which was attended by representatives of six ministries, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, the Economic and Social Council, Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski, the National Statistical Institute, the National Association of Municipalities in the Republic of Bulgaria, NGOs and experts in the field.

After the meeting Denkov said that the government is committed to turning Bulgaria's demographic development strategies into concrete plans with deadlines and budgets.