Austria’s Federal Chancellor Kurz Meets with Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Borissov

Austrian Federal Chancellor Sebastian Kurz is on a visit to Sofia on 15^th of March. He held a meeting with Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Boyko Borissov.

Highlights in the talks with Borissov included the deepening of bilateral relations as well as the handing over of the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, which Austria will take over from Bulgaria on the 1^st of July.

Speaking at a joint news conference after the meeting, Borissov said that 2018 should be considered as a Bulgarian-Austrian EU Presidency because topics such as the Western Balkans, the protection of the EU external borders, the decisions concerning the Dublin regulation, the cohesion policy, and other matters, cannot be started and finilised for the period of six months.

We share the same opinion that the most serious area in which we have to work is security, Sebastian Kurz said. He added that more joint work is needed for the security of the external borders and tackling illegal migration. He thanked Bulgaria for the efforts for containing the migrant wave.