Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs Mariya Gabriel: Today the Schengen area is stronger with Bulgaria and Romania
31 December 2023 News
Late in the evening on 30 December 2023 the Council of the European Union decided unanimously on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area with the abolition of controls at internal air and sea borders as of 31 March 2024.
‘Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen area is a national priority and commitment under our Treaty of Accession to the European Union. I thank the governments that have worked to advance this priority. I would especially like to thank Boyko Borissov for his dedicated and consistent work on this issue, the parliamentary groups supporting the government, the Bulgarian MEPs. My position on the issue and contribution to achieving this goal has been for over 10 years — as a member of the European Parliament, of the European Commission, as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs’, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mariya Gabriel said on the occasion of the Council's decision.
She pointed out that Bulgaria had been demonstrating on a daily basis its key role in protecting the external borders of the European Union and stressed that our country had a strong border management system, which further strengthened the EU's security.
‘I would like to thank the team beside me for the difficult negotiations and for overcoming the challenging, at times discouraging, moments. I appreciate our perfect coordination and convincing results with Interior Minister Kalin Stoyanov, on whom I will continue to rely’, Gabriel added.
‘I would like to extend my gratitude to the EU Member States, the European Commission, the European Parliament, the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU, the General Secretariat and the Legal Service of the Council for working together in these festive days to make progress on an important national priority for Bulgaria,’ the Deputy Prime Minister said.
‘It is said in diplomacy that a good compromise is one in which both sides are not entirely satisfied. I believe that negotiations driven by the protection of the national interest could not have had a different outcome. Let us make sure that, with mutual trust and common action, 2024 is led by the common European interest. With the adoption of the current EU Council Decision, Bulgaria becomes a full member of the Schengen area with the phasing out of controls at the different types of borders — from the end of March 2024, controls at the air and sea borders will be abolished. In 2024, we will continue to work together for the subsequent abolition of land border controls’, Mariya Gabriel added.