Dec 15, 2023. Posted by Balkan Periscope - Hellas
Earlier on Friday, Reuters and the Dutch ANP news agency quoted the Dutch Justice Ministry as saying that the Netherlands agreed to Bulgaria joining the Schengen area.
On Thursday, President Radev said that he expects the Netherlands to
announce full support for Bulgaria and Romania for Schengen in the near
future.
Bulgaria has fulfilled all the conditions for joining Schengen since 2011,
Radev said. "We have seen that it is difficult to change the fact that
some countries solve their own internal political problems and this is a fact
that we have to take into account, but we should do our best to remove these
barriers," the President said.
"What I received as a personal assurance during numerous talks with
Prime Minister Mark Rutte was only one thing - the Cooperation and Verification
Mechanism is lifted and the Netherlands will fully support Bulgaria's Schengen
membership without any restrictions," Radev said, adding that he is
convinced that Prime Minister Rutte will respect this.
Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov told journalists in Brussels
earlier in the day that Bulgaria expects the Parliament of the Netherlands to
lift the veto on Schengen enlargement into Bulgaria and Romania in the coming
days.
The Dutch government had a meeting on Friday and a decision about Schengen
enlargement will be submitted to the legislature for a final sanctions, Denkov
explained. He expects that to happen next week, if all things go as planned.
Bta
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