Rashidov invites the Speakers of Parliaments of the countries opposed to Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen

Parliament Speaker Vezhdi Rashidov invites his counterparts, the Speakers of the Parliaments of Austria and the Netherlands - the countries that are against Bulgaria’s Schengen membership - to a meeting in Bulgaria next week. An invitation will also be extended to the Parliament Speakers of Croatia and Romania.

Rashidov made the announcement in Strasbourg, where he met his Croatian counterpart and took part in the ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the European Parliament.

After the meeting with his Croatian counterpart, Vezhdi Rashidov commented that the Bulgarians, Romanians and Croats deserve to become part of Schengen and not to stay as "orphans on the sidelines". Earlier, the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola also expressed support for Bulgaria’s accession.

"That is why I say it would be good for our Parliaments to sit down very quickly for a meeting - we will now agree over the phone exactly how this will happen so that we can all influence our government so that things are no longer like this. Time is short.

-BNT: You want a meeting next week?

Yes, and I asked for it to be in Bulgaria as well, let's host such an initiative," Rashidov said.

The European Commission announced that Romania has met the criteria for suspension of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism reports. Bulgaria received the same assessment in 2019, but the final decision on the abolition of the Mechanism, as well as the decision on accession to Schengen, has to be taken by the member states.

One of the reasons why the Netherlands is against our Schengen membership is precisely the existence of this report. A senior European Commission official commented today that the Bulgarian authorities are committed to responding in the next six months to the justified criticism of our country and to adopting a law on the accountability of the Prosecutor General.