Austria appreciates Bulgaria's efforts to protect the EU's external border

Austria appreciates Bulgaria's efforts to protect the EU's external border, said Wolfgang Sobotka, Speaker of the upper house of the Austrian Parliament. On October 10, he visited the Bulgarian-Turkish border at the invitation of Bulgarian Parliament’s Speaker Rosen Zhelyazkov.

Austria, together with the Netherlands, still oppose the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into Schengen, the main reason being that more controls are needed amid migrant pressure in Europe.

"Austria's veto is not related to the management of migrant flows," Rosen Zhelyazkov explained.

“According to our Austrian counterparts, Schengen is not functioning the way it should because of many modes of operation. Our position is that Bulgaria and Romania’s accession will optimise the Schengen regime, will allow the concentration of more resources at the external borders, will favour the migration processes, including the readmission and asylum issues,We expect that the trialogues related to the migration and asylum pact will be successfully concluded during the Spanish presidency and Bulgaria will benefit from the lifting of the Austrian veto,

"The veto on Schengen entry is not related to Bulgaria itself. Bulgaria fulfils the Schengen criteria. I personally had the opportunity to see this today at the Bulgarian-Turkish border," Sobotka said.