Bulgaria’s efforts to enter the Schengen zone are supported by the EC

The European Commission issues biannual overviews on the functioning of the area of Schengen, considered health-checks. According to the third biannual report that was released by the European Commission in the beginning of June, Bulgaria and its neighbor state Romania are ready to join the passport-free Schengen zone. The European Commission states that Bulgaria and Romania have successfully fulfilled the criteria for applying into the borderless area. Furthermore, the European Commission declared that it supports the efforts of the presidency that are made in that direction. Even so, the European Commission was yet not able to decide whether to lift the control that is made at the internal borders to the two countries.

Bulgaria has complied will all requirements that were laid in front of it in order to be accepted in the Schengen zone. That is why its efforts to become a member state of the Schengen agreement have been supported. At the moment the entry of both Bulgaria and Romania has been postponed. Hopefully, the two countries will be included in the passport free area at some point next spring.