Meglena Kuneva

Romania and Bulgaria are planning to use the migrant crisis, trading their approval of quotas for access to the Schengen borderless area, the Daily Express has claimed.

Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva has said that Bulgaria keeps insisting on being granted partial Schengen membership by air border.

Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva stated on Wednesday that the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen Area is part of the solution to the unprecedented refugee crisis affecting Europe.

According to her, this was the case especially now that changes to guarding the external borders of the EU were being discussed.

Bulgaria's Deputy Prime Ministers Rumyana Bachvarova, Meglena Kuneva and Ivaylo Kalfin and Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov presented on Tuesday the country's stance on the unprecedented refugee crisis facing Europe.

Earlier on Tuesday, the four ministers had discussed the issue with Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, daily Dnevnik informs.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov said on Tuesday that the refugee crisis represented an additional argument in favour of Bulgaria's accession to the Schengen Area.

According to Mitov, the accession of Bulgaria would facilitate the exchange of information, including data on the refugee wave between the countries of the Schengen Area.

The Bulgarian Parliament rejected on Thursday the bill aimed at preventing corruption among high-level public officials at first reading with 101 MPs voting in favour, 38 voting against and 72 abstaining.

Bulgarian MPs will convene for their first plenary sitting after the summer recess on Wednesday.

At the beginning, the parliamentary groups will announce their priorities for the fourth session of the 43rd National Assembly.

Bulgaria's bid to join the EU's Schengen borderless area and the increasing migratory pressure on Europe will be in the focus of a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister Meglena Kuneva and Finland's Foreign Minister Timo Soini, the government in Sofia said on Tuesday.

Bulgarian Chief Prosecutor Sotir Tsatsarov is due to meet with Chinese counterpart Cao Jianming the latter is visiting the capital Sofia and the city of Plovdiv on Friday and Saturday, officials say.

This is a reciprocal visit after Tsatsarov traveled to China in December 2014.

Bulgaria is very interested in the signing of a Free Trade Agreement between the EU and Japan, according to Deputy Prime Minister for European Policies Coordination and Institutional Affairs Meglena Kuneva.