What stopped Bulgaria from entering Schengen and what the future hides?

Bulgaria became a member of the European Union in the beginning of 2007 and by 2011 it was ready in technical terms to enter the borderless travel zone of the Schengen agreement. Several of the founding members of the Schengen zone however opposed to the enlargement of the visa free area and the newcomers Romania and Bulgaria. One of the countries that severely opposed to Bulgaria entering the Schengen area is the old member country The Netherlands. The country stated that it will lift its veto if Bulgaria receives two monitoring reports under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism from the European Commission which are positive. Until that very moment, neither Bulgaria, no Romania have received such positive reports from the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism committee.

The Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Christian Vigenin hopes to have good discussions with the other member states in the European Union on the future of the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism. He commented that he expects such discussions to take place once the new commissioners take over. The Minister hopes to discuss with the commissioners how Bulgaria complies with that mechanism ad if it works in the proper way to achieve results. Mr. Christian Vigenin further said that he expects the country to enter the travel free Schengen zone by year 2018 when the country is expected to take over the European Union rotating presidency. He said that the Bulgaria is ready to solve all its issues and become part of the Schengen agreement even sooner than that timeframe.