Rumyana Bachvarova

Bulgarian Transport Minister Ivaylo Moskovski has said no flights scheduled from Sofia to Brussels are to take place as of the moment.

Speaking to reporters, he has added a en emergency meeting presided by Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova on Tuesday afternoon will be held to establish whether the level of security alert should be raised.

Around a thousand citizens of the Bulgarian town of Kresna held a protest on Monday against rumours suggesting that their town might accommodate refugees in the event of a heightened migrant pressure on the country's borders.

Tensions are rising between GERB party of Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and a party which is a member of the Reformist Bloc, GERB's junior partner in the coalition government, but has been in opposition since December.

Bulgarian police officers and servicemen are conducting joint training on the country's border with Macedonia on Friday.

The training is aimed at assessing the country's capacity to guard the border in the event of a heightened migrant pressure and counter the smuggling of migrants.

The Bulgarian government approved at its regular meeting on Wednesday, the draft of an intergovernmental agreement between Bulgaria and the US on the exchange of information about lost and stolen passports through Interpol.

A former interim Interior Minister is taking over the State Agency for Refugees, the Bulgarian government has said.

At a cabinet meeting, Petya Parvanova, who oversaw internal affairs under the 2013 caretaker administration of Marin Raykov, has been appointed to the office.

Bulgaria has already asked the EU Commission for help to beef up security along its border with Greece, Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova said on Thursday.

A final agreement between the EU and Turkey should provide guarantees that land borders between Turkey and Bulgaria or between Greece and Turkey will not become part of a new migrant route, Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov has said.

Bulgaria is anticipating a possible increase of migratory pressure on Bulgaria as a result of EU effort to "close down" the Balkans route for migrants, Interior Minister Rumyana Bachvarova has said.

A joint exercise is to be conducted on Saturday in Southwestern Bulgaria, at the border with Greece and near the one in Macedonia, in light of potentially increasing migratory pressure.

The drill will be held in the region of Petrich, Sandanski and Kulata, the latter being a major border crossing point with Greece.