Schengen Area

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.

"The adoption of the euro will not increase inflation further". This was stated by Deputy Prime Minister Atanas Pekanov on the air of BNT.

He noted that the euro is stronger than 10 years ago when we could have seen turmoil. "We don't have that at the moment. We adopted measures to calm the markets. Institutionally, the euro is stronger", Pekanov stressed.

European Union countries agreed Wednesday to make it harder for Russian citizens to enter the 27-nation bloc, but they failed to find a consensus on imposing an outright tourist ban in response to Russia's war on Ukraine.

Obrežje – Interior Minister Tatjana Bobnar stressed as she met her Croatian counterpart Davor Božinović in Obrežje, east, on Monday that Slovenia absolutely supports Croatia’s entry into the Schengen zone. Božinović said this is in both countries’s interest, which Bobnar confirmed.

Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania meet all the technical requirements for the Schengen area, the German chancellor said, quoted by Reuters. "I will work for these countries to become full members", added Olaf Scholz.

Citizens of Turkey and Kosovo are still spending time and money applying for visas to enter Europe's Schengen zone. Kosovars see light at the end of the tunnel, but a growing proportion of Turkish applications are being rejected.

Finland will reduce the number of visas issued to Russians to 10% of the current level, Foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto said on Tuesday.

Russian citizens who have a Schengen visa issued by the Estonian republic will not be allowed to enter the territory of Estonia, announced the Republic's Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu.

Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said he expects Romania - after more than a decade of waiting - to enter the EU's Schengen area before the end of the year. This will eliminate the long wait at Romania's borders with other EU countries and increase its attractiveness for foreign investors.

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".