Salzburg Forum

Within the framework of the visit to Austria, Deputy Prime Minister for Public Order and Security and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Demerdzhiev held a meeting with his colleague Gerhard Karner, Federal Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Austria. The emphasis in the talks was placed on the recent positive resolution of the issue of Bulgaria's Schengen membership.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer has publicly called on the EU to finance the construction of a 2 billion euro fence along the Bulgarian-Turkish border, where more and more migrants are crossing into the EU. The proposal was repeated by the Austrian permanent representative during the meeting of EU ambassadors on Wednesday.

"We support the membership of Bulgaria and Romania in Schengen, because the Balkan countries play a very important role for us," Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, told the plenary hall of the European Parliament.

Sweden's permanent representative to the EU, Lars Danielsson, whose country has taken over the rotating presidency of the Union since January 1, has said that he will not initiate a vote on Bulgaria and Romania's Schengen admission in the EU Council until an agreement is reached with the countries that opposed of their accession.

Deputy Prime Minister for Public Order and Security and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Demerdzhiev took part in a meeting dedicated to the enlargement of Schengen in Prague at the initiative of the Czech Presidency.

The Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union has invited the Ministers of Internal Affairs of Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania to Prague on September 13 to discuss the accession of the three Balkan countries to the Schengen Area, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported citing Romanian MP Rares Bogdan.

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Bulgaria has blocked about 50,000 IP addresses and 500 domains from Russia and Belarus, from which hacker attacks were attempted. This was announced by Deputy Interior Minister Tanya Raycheva during an informal meeting of the Council "Justice and Internal Affairs".

Luxembourg – The EU interior ministers have reached agreement on a negotiating basis to reform the Schengen Borders Code as part of which the rules when a Schengen member state wants to reintroduce internal border controls would be tightened. Slovenian Interior Minister Tatjana Bobnar stressed at Friday’s ministerial that these checks must be temporary.

The reform of the Schengen area must help EU countries create the necessary conditions for more effective control of external borders. This was stated on Wednesday in an interview with reporters by French President Emmanuel Macron, who is attending an informal meeting of EU interior ministers in the French municipality of Tourcoing.

Twelve EU member states asked the European Commission to strengthen measures against irregular migration and financially support physical barriers at the bloc's external borders.