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After several years of preparations and hopes, on 20th January this year Bulgaria admitted that its entry into the passport free travel zone of Schengen will most probably take place in three or four years period. According to information provided by the Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, the country is invited and is expected to enter the borderless Schengen area in 2017 or 2018, when the country will also take over the rotating Council presidency of the European Union. The Minister of Foreign affairs said that he expects the decision which concerns the bid of Bulgaria to be taken in 2014. The minister hopes that the air borders of the country to open in 2015, followed by opening of the land borders in 2017. This means that Bulgaria is expected to become a full member of the Schengen area by 2018. This plan for Bulgaria to enter Schengen is seen by the minister as realistic.

In 2007 Bulgaria joined the European Union and three years later the country was technically ready to join the travel free zone of Schengen. Actually, the country hoped to enter the Schengen agreement in 2011. Unfortunately for Bulgaria, several of the founding members of the Schengen agreement, in particular Germany and the Netherlands, opposed to the newcomers in the face of Bulgaria and Romania and they have successfully used their veto on several occasions.

The President of Bulgaria Mr. Rosen Plevneliev attended a joint press conference with his Estonian counterpart Mr. Toomas Hendrik Ilves. The conference took place during the official visit of the Estonian President in the Bulgarian capital, Sofia city. As Focus News Agency informed, the President of Bulgaria confirmed that Bulgaria appreciates the support of Estonia for Bulgaria’s wish to become part of the Schengen area. The Bulgarian President Mr. Rosen Plevneliev further stated that Bulgaria and Estonia are working together in NATO, where the two countries are honorable members.

The two presidents of Bulgaria and Estonia made time on their joint conference to reassure the press that they will proceed and even strengthen the cooperation between two countries. Bulgaria and Estonia plan to work together in the cyber security field and to cooperate in the cyber defense center of NATO in Denmark. The head of the state, Mr. Rosen Plevneliev further expressed his vision for the two countries to support the policy on enlargement with the other Western Balkan countries and to support their bid for integration in the European Union. That is why it comes as no surprise that Estonia stands strong behind its support offered to Bulgaria as far as Schengen membership is concerned.

The Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Christian Vigenin informed that it is most likely that Bulgaria will receive an invitation in order to become a member of the Schengen travel free zone. According to the expectations of the minister, this is supposed to be a final decision based on solid and well considered observations. The Foreign Minister informed the Bulgarian society that he expects that the opening of the Schengen travel free zone will be done in two stages. The first stage of the Schengen opening would be by air and later on, the second stage would be by land. Naturally, this opening of the Schengen passport free travel zone will be done later and not automatically. Most probably Bulgaria will become a member of the Schengen agreement in several years period. According to the Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Christian Vigenin, Bulgaria will enter Schengen visa free zone by year 2018.

Currently Bulgaria is not part of the Schengen zone, yet de facto and even not de jure, Bulgaria feels as part of the Schengen zone. This is so as the country is applying all the regulations and rules validated by Schengen. By year 2018, the minister expects the European Union monitoring on the Bulgarian judiciary system to be removed. He also believes that at that time Bulgaria will keep the presidency of the European Union. The Foreign Minister was on an official visit in Britain, where he was assured that no discrimination rules shall be applied to the Bulgarians working there.

Bulgaria is ready to enter the visa free travel zone of the Schengen agreement, yet due to certain delays and current situations, the country is still not member of the passport-free area. Even so, since the beginning of January, Bulgaria as a member of the European Union has gained certain rights. With the start of the new year, the citizens of the country were given the right to work in all member states of the European Union since the free movement of workers is a right to all citizens that are part of the union. Bulgaria and its neighboring country Romania joined the European Union in year 2007 and after a seven year period, their citizens can finally benefit from free movement of the workers. Actually many countries from the European Union opened their labor markets for Bulgarians and Romanians long ago. Finally, restrictions are now not valid and workers from the two countries can search for jobs in Austria and Belgium, Britain and France, Germany and Luxembourg, Spain, Malta and the Netherlands.

The labor markets are now open for Bulgarians, however they have to apply for jobs that are officially offered and they have to follow the rules that are applied to the citizens in the country that is concerned. Until now Bulgarians had the right to stay for three months in one country, but had no right to work there. Now this has changed. At the same time, Bulgaria is still not a member of the Schengen agreement, as many Schengen members fear that the borders of the country are not protected well and this will lead to a huge migration from the Middle East and Asia.

Greece is the new president of the European Union and it will be the country to approve the new agenda of the European Council. It is according to Greece to decide whether to include the membership issue of Romania and Bulgaria into the travel free zone of Schengen. The presidency of Greece will be done in a regime of austerity and the country will do everything possible its presidency to give results. The European Union presidency is done on a rotating principle. Athens is expected to hold many more than a dozen meetings of ministers, man working group meetings, various congresses, summits, conferences and seminars. Hopefully for Bulgaria, some of them will discuss the possible entry of the country in the visa free Schengen zone.

During the Greek presidency of the European Union there will be four major priorities set by the country. These will include unemployment measures, economic management of the institutions of the European Union, guarantee of the bank deposits, control of the borders, free movement of people, to name just some of them. Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President believes that Greece will cope well with the presidency duties and will contribute to the stableness of the European Union.

Once the Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso, the President of the European Commission, confirmed in December 2013 that Bulgaria and Romania will not be accepted in the Schengen border free zone in January 2014, the two countries issued a common declaration stating their will to join the travel free area of Schengen and to work together in order to achieve their aim. The declaration of the two countries states that they have already fulfilled the requirements needed for a Schengen accession and that there is no serious reason or any reason at all for their entry to be still delayed. Romania and Bulgaria have a common position on the matter and thus they issued a common declaration that concern Schengen. The two countries plan to state loud and clear their position and defend it as full members of the European Union.

At the same time, Bulgaria has been promised support from the European Commission in concern with the refugee situation in the country. Hopefully, the country will get more support in dealing with the migration problems. The Bulgarian Minister of Interior Tsvetlin Yovchev has already informed the European Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom on the situation in Bulgaria and the migration pressure. The country expects to receive serious support during year 2014.

In December, in front of a French TV channel the President of the European Commission Mr. Jose Manuel Barroso confirmed that Romania and Bulgaria will not enter the passport free travel zone of Schengen. He explained that both countries are technically ready to become members of the Schengen agreement for a long time, yet they were still left outside the visa free zone. The official announcement was unpleasant news for Romania and Bulgaria, yet nothing that the two countries have not expected. For a year already, the entry in Schengen for Bulgaria and Romania have been used for the domestic political purposes of certain political figures in Germany, the Netherlands and France.

Despite the fail to enter the Schengen area Bulgaria and Romania faced a drop of all barriers that stood in front of their citizens as far as employment is concerned. In other words, since January 1st all people from Bulgaria and Romania have access to the employment markets of the rest of the European Union member countries. Even so, the accession of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen zone requires separate decision that should be taken by the Council of the European Union. There are expectations that talks about that situation will continue in the future until the two countries are finally accepted in the border control free zone of Schengen.

The Interior Minister of Germany declared that now it is not the right time for Romania and Bulgaria to become part of the travel free zone of Schengen. Mr. Hans-Peter Friedrich confirmed that the two countries are making progress, but the situation is such that the border controls for the two countries should still remain. According to the Interior Minister, the progress of Romania and Bulgaria as far as the Schengen application is concerned is appreciated but still not sufficient so that to meet all legal conditions that should be applied and that which allow for Romania and Bulgaria to enter the Schengen visa free travel area.

At the same time the official representative of Germany stated that he is not in the position of estimating how much more time would Romania and Bulgaria need and when will be the right and good moment for the Romania and Bulgaria to join the Schengen zone. The two countries are waiting to join the passport free no border area of Schengen after being members of the European Union for seven years already. Until now the joining of the two countries have been blocked at several occasions by different member states of the European Union.

The speaker of the Bulgarian parliament and the Chamber of Deputies President has agreed on a parliamentary cooperation between Bulgaria and Romania concerning the issues of Schengen accession of the two countries. This cooperation process includes meetings on a regular basis of the committees that are in charge of the Schengen accession which will be in charge of presenting clear and common statements that concern the application of the two countries to enter the visa free travel area of Schengen. According to the speaker of the Bulgarian parliament and the Prime Minister of Romania, the bilateral cooperation is a necessity that will add to the governmental partnership process between the two countries.

The two representatives of the Bulgarian and the Romanian authorities stated that the two countries have fulfilled the technical criteria as requested and have implemented the required commitments that concern the border control and the security of the two countries. According to the Prime Minister of Romania the process of postponing the entry of Romania and Bulgaria in the Schengen agreement zone is humiliating and unacceptable. The speaker of the Bulgarian parliament further spoke about the upcoming meeting and police cooperation between the Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia – a step that will be approved by the European Commission as a declaration for the strict security processes in the three countries and in the European Union in general. Romania and Bulgaria hope to enter the Schengen agreement in 2014, since they will join efforts and will not allow being opposed to one another as until that moment.

The Greek Ambassador in the European Union, Mr. Teodoris Sotiropoulos informed the media in Bulgaria that the inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria and thus the enlargement of the Schengen Area will not be among the priority task during the upcoming presidency of Greece of the European Union. The Greek Ambassador further stated that the two countries should not expect for common measures to be introduced that concern the limitation of the access to the labor markets in the European Union.

Mr. Teodoris Sotiropoulos further stated that he hopes that soon the member countries of the Schengen area will reach an agreement for the enlargement of the travel free zone and that they will set up a plan for this to happen. In 2012 several countries opposed to the expansion of the Schengen area and inclusion of the two new countries – Bulgaria and Romania, even after it was proven that they are technically ready to enter the passport free area. Among these countries were France and the Netherlands. At the same time some Bulgaria analysts comment that the crises with the great number of refugees currently in the country will decrease the chance of Bulgaria to enter the Schengen travel zone.