Austria's Schengen conditions: keep Bulgaria-Romania border control until at least mid-2025
Bulgaria is now likely to become a full member of the Schengen free travel zone alongside Romania from next year. The breakthrough was achieved today, on 22 November, at a trilateral meeting between the interior ministers of Bulgaria, Romania and Austria, organized by the Hungarian EU presidency and attended by the European Home Affairs Commissioner Ilva Johansson. According to Capital weekly sources, a decision on the full accession of the two countries to the land-based Schengen will be reached on 12 December at the next official meeting of the interior ministers in Brussels. After that, the decision will be formalized by the leaders of the member states on 19 December.
The draft of the document from the Budapest meeting, which Capital weekly has seen, sets out Austria's additional conditions to lift its veto. Last year, Vienna had similar requirements when Sofia and Bucharest partially joined Schengen by air and sea. The main new requirement in the document is that, in order to avoid a potential shift in migration flows after the abolition of internal borders, countries agree to retain land controls between Hungary and Romania and Bulgaria and Romania for an initial period of at least six months, after the official date for full accession to land-based Schengen.
Fifth attempt to elect a parliamentary head also ends in failure
On Friday afternoon, the procedure for electing a Parliament speaker failed for the fifth time after neither of the two candidates who went to the second round of voting managed to collect the required number of votes.
In the second round of voting, the distribution of votes went as follows: GERB's Raya Nazarian gained 68 votes in favor (from her own party), 150 votes against and 20 abstentions, while TISP's Silvi Kirilov got 101 votes in favor, 99 votes against and 37 abstentions from BSP and Democratic Bulgaria, part of the WCC-DB coalition.
The vote repeated the results from Wednesday, when 101 MPs voted for Silvi Kirilov, who currently runs the parliamentary sessions in his capacity as the oldest MP. Later, the MPs decided that the sitting would be suspended and resumed on Wednesday, 27 November).
Foreign Ministry condemns ICC arrest warrant for Israel's PM
The Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) criticized the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to simultaneously issue three arrest warrants for crimes against humanity and war crimes allegedly ordered by leaders of both sides of the ongoing Israeli-Palestine conflict, Hamas military commander Mohammed Diab Ibrahim Al-Masri and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. "Such arrest warrants do not contribute to the establishment of a lasting and sustainable peace in the Middle East. Bulgaria will continue to support efforts aimed at achieving a ceasefire and the release of hostages," the MFA wrote in a position.
"Without commenting on the merits of the international jurisdiction's acts, we find that the warrants issued do not distinguish between responsibility for the unprecedented Hamas terrorist attack on the State of Israel on October 7 and legitimate acts of self-defense in response to the attack by Israel," the MFA notes in its position, adding that, while Bulgaria "supports the independence, integrity and impartiality of the ICC," it has "consistently opposed attempts to use it politically."
Austria's Schengen conditions: keep Bulgaria-Romania border control until at least mid-2025
Bulgaria is now likely to become a full member of the Schengen free travel zone alongside Romania from next year. The breakthrough was achieved today, on 22 November, at a trilateral meeting between the interior ministers of Bulgaria, Romania and Austria, organized by the Hungarian EU presidency and attended by the European Home Affairs Commissioner Ilva Johansson. According to Capital weekly sources, a decision on the full accession of the two countries to the land-based Schengen will be reached on 12 December at the next official meeting of the interior ministers in Brussels. After that, the decision will be formalized by the leaders of the member states on 19 December.
