Cătălin Predoiu, Minister of Internal Affairs:
I am very happy to be here today in your beautiful capital. First of all, I would like to thank Minister Stoyanov for his invitation. I am very happy to continue working with him. For us, he is a very good partner, a very good minister. We worked very well together last year and will continue to work this year to implement the Schengen acquis at all borders in 2024. I would also like to thank Commissioner Johansson for her inspiration, support, dedication and commitment to our common goals. Schengen is not only a bilateral issue between Romania and Bulgaria. Schengen is a European project. Last year we made an important step. We have to go ahead with the second one, with land borders in 2024. Both countries are ready for that. We are ready to do it. We have successfully implemented the decision taken in 2023. We have taken the necessary measures to secure our borders and European borders to combat illegal migration and cross-border organized crime. And it’s true, we’re here to celebrate an important result achieved last year. But we are also here to organize our efforts to continue our work for the benefit of our citizens in 2024 until we complete this important European project, which is the extension of the Schengen acquis to all borders for Romania and Bulgaria. We have discussed in detail all the measures to integrate the efforts of our internal border police to fight organized crime, to fight against illegal migration, to take all the decisions in order to ensure for our citizens a free travel and a sustainable way to exercise the rights conferred by the Constitution and the European treaties. I am sure that together with Commissioner Johansson and the rest of the EU Member States we will achieve our goals this year. Thank you very much and I’m looking forward to working with you.
Thank you!
Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs:
It is wonderful to be back in Sofia and it is a pleasure for me to be here with you, Minister Stoyanov, dear Kalin, and together with you, Minister Predoiu, dear Cătălin, to celebrate the well-deserved and long-awaited accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area. We collaborated very closely on this project. Therefore, it is an excellent time of celebration. However, we are not completely satisfied, as we still need to decide on the lifting of land border controls, as you well know. And I can tell you that, two days ago, the Commission adopted the annual Schengen report, where, for the first time, we also proposed recommendations to the Council, in which we propose that the Council set this year the date on which internal border controls will be abolished terrestrial. This proposal will be discussed at the next Council in June. And I know it is also a priority for the Belgian presidency. I want to tell you that we had a very constructive exchange of views, where both ministers, Stoyanov and Predoiu, talked about the improvements made both in Bulgaria and in Romania. We have also observed, through various Commission fact-finding missions and evaluations that these two countries, Bulgaria and Romania, are actually better prepared to comply with all Schengen requirements than some of the other Member States. We have effective protection of the Schengen external borders. We cooperate well with third countries, including very important cooperation with Turkey. We have also seen a significant increase in the number of repatriations.
Our police cooperation is effective. So we notice that now, after last week we had a decision, the final decision on the new Pact on Migration and Asylum, both Bulgaria and Romania are ahead of some of the other member states in terms of implementation, thanks to all the efforts made at the external borders. It is impressive to see all these advances. And the last thing I would like to say is that this was a very important issue for the Commission, but also for me personally, to see Bulgaria and Romania as full members of the Schengen area. And I am absolutely convinced and very motivated to see the last decision to remove land border control during my mandate as European Commissioner.
