Category: Business Support

The activities in Bulgaria that are related with the implementation of all criteria that are requested by the Schengen authorities are being financed by the so called Instrument Schengen. The investments made are associated with the technical equipment (motor vehicles, equipment for monitoring and control of borders, special equipment for monitoring and control, special equipment for conducting police operations near border areas, etc.), as well as the construction and maintenance of the Schengen Information System and the Visa Information System, investments related to optimization and upgrading of facilities in the border zone for better border security, trainings for improvement of the staff qualifications, etc.

The access of Bulgaria into the Schengen zone will be very positive from political and economic point of view. When Bulgaria finally becomes a regular member state, which is believed to happen in the beginning of next year, the country will benefit from the collaboration between the judicial and police authorities against the international criminality. Besides that, the Schengen membership will attract many new investors in the country, which will bring profits to the business and a better perspective in front of the country. As a member state of the Schengen agreement, Bulgaria will become more appealing to the foreign investors.

The access of Bulgaria and Romania into the passport-free traveling throughout Europe has been postponed for yet another time and this is for an indefinite period. The situation led to serious debates among the politicians in Bulgaria, who were blaming one political formation or another. At the same time Romanians seemed to be bored with the numerous delays and no longer interested whether they will enter the Schengen zone or not.

Here comes the question what does the Schengen zone symbolize? The main idea behind the Schengen agreement is for the possibility of free crossing of borders between the countries that are members of the Schengen zone. At the same time, this agreement aims to guarantee the level of security of all the member states, which is achieved by various means, including common standards of border control at the external borders; similar visa policy; similar national legislation, cross-border police and judicial cooperation, as well as introduction of the Schengen Information System. Today, all 25 member states of the Schengen agreement apply these rules. Twenty-two of the countries are members of the European Union as well. The other three that participate in the Schengen zone are Switzerland, Island and Norway. Hopefully, Bulgaria and Romania will enter the Schengen zone at the beginning of next year as 26th and 27th state of Schengen.

In the beginning of April, the Bulgarian President Mr. Plevneliev was in Budapest to meet the Hungarian President. There he expressed his gratitude for the support that Hungary provided to the accession of Bulgaria in the Schengen zone. The Bulgarian President confirmed that the country is ready for Schengen and has already met the technical requirements imposed for the membership and the planned accession in two stages. Both presidents confirmed that they support the planned enlargement of the European Union. Mr. Plevneliev also stated that when there is a problem, it is being solved. He was positive that if the country has problems with Roma invasion in the UK, it will solve the issue. For now however, there is no evidence for such problems.

According to the Bulgarian President, Bulgaria has invested a lot in keeping the borders save and strong and that the authorities have acted in the most responsible manner. He also confirmed that Bulgarians believe in the European responsibility and solidarity. The President shared the belief that Bulgaria will no longer be victim of internal problems in the European countries that organize campaigns against Sofia and Bulgaria.

At one point next spring Bulgaria will finally enter the Schengen zone and even if it allows for free travel with no passports, it sets a question about the privacy of the personal information. With the new European Information System that is being introduced, the security officials will be able to exchange information in a faster and easier way. This however evokes the privacy question. After all the min idea behind the Schengen Agreement was for a free movement without internal borders and controls. In other words, within the Schengen zone citizens can move freely without checking in with the authorities as they go from one country to the other.

With the new database, the information gathered and exchanged will include not only data for people who are missing or wanted, but also biometric data, photos and fingerprints that will be saved. It seems that after the expansion of the Schengen agreement, the European customs need to have a solid database system and work together on finding criminals, weapons and stolen cars. There are no border controls in the Schengen zone, but still the member states should joint their forces in order to fight crime. No doubt, there should be standards imposed on what data should be saved and for what purposes, as well as who will have the right to access it. Since Bulgaria will soon be part of that, people have to know that there will be personal information that they will have to share.

In the last two months have been heard various arguments for and against the entry on Bulgaria into the Schengen zone. But is this fear reasonable? No doubts the debate whether Bulgaria and Romania should enter the passport-free zone will get hotter in the next months that follow. It is expected that the two countries will become members of the agreement early next year. This led to fears in Britain over the immigration wave that is expected to reach the country.

Bulgarians however find this fear as offensive. The truth is that there are many gypsies who would seek for a way to enter UK, so if the British authorities are afraid of that they can introduce a simple English language test and find out who has a real reason to move to UK and has made efforts and who has not. As for the immigrants, there are many Bulgarians who are working in the United Kingdom for years, paying their taxes. The people that are now living in Bulgaria are people who want to change their country to the better and they want one thing as far as Schengen is concerned – freedom to travel when they want to and no bureaucracy. They are fed up of being treated as untrustworthy, second hand people. Hopefully, soon this will stop.

One month has passed since the bank crises in Cyprus and the country is still in a stage of uncertainly. A month ago on a meeting of the Ministers of Finance in the European Zone was taken a decision that the deposits in Cyprus have to be taken a tax on and thus one of the two sectors of the local economy that were productive were destroyed. After every political decision taken on the finances, the people are the one to suffer and in this case these are the people of Cyprus. Many businesses have closed down, a lot of people are unemployed and there is no official information about the direction in which the country will go.

People are afraid of the future and try to save as much as possible, so that they can survive through the crises. They are not buying anything more than the minimum everyday necessities and of course, this immediately affects the economy. Locals have a lot of mortgages and are not certain whether they will be able to make the payments. Many people do not know what to expect from their retirement funds and are not certain if they will have peaceful living when retired or not. In general, there is a feeling of despair and uncertainty in Cyprus now which will not go away soon.

This Sunday the Bank of Cyprus, which is the lender of the country, implemented a conversion of the unused cash deposits available in the bank into equity. This was one of the conditions asked for by the international lenders, in order to provide the financial aid to the island. According to Reuters, the process that is known as bail-in makes those people who have deposits be the one that will pay for the recapitalization of the bank. Bank of Cyprus was seriously hit by massive losses, being the largest bank in the country. It was announced that the bank has converted 37.5 percent of the deposits that are exceeding 100 000 Euros in high shares, while additional 22.5 percent of the deposits are still held and might be converted into shares in the future. Other 30 percent of the deposits beyond 100 000 Euros will be frozen and used later if needed. No information was given on the actual cash these percentages stay for. Most probably this information will be given in the mid of the summer.

The process known as bail-in also includes dissolution of the Popular Bank, which is the second largest lender in Cyprus. This is another effort that the country makes in order to collect the 13 billion euros that it needs and to recover its economy. The country is expected to get another ten billion by the International Monetary Fund and the European Union. The parliament of Cyprus will vote on the bailout tomorrow, on 30th April, while the first part of the help from the European Union and from the International Monetary Fund will be received in May.

There are two main factors that are very important in order Bulgaria to be accepted in the border free travel zone of Schengen. The first essential thing for the country is to preserve its stable development and to make sure that its infrastructure will get even better. The second important thing concerns the prevention of illegal migration. This information was provided in the beginning of April by Monika Hohlmeier, who is a member of the party group of the European People and of the Committees on budgets and on organized crime, corruption and money laundering of the European Parliament. In general, Bulgaria has to convince the other member states of the Schengen passport free zone that it has taken all the measures necessary.

Actually, it will be fair to say that the Schengen zone has problems that concern the illegal immigration with one of its member states – Greece. The country does not fight effectively with the illegal migration and now has to put a lot of efforts and funds in solving that issue. Because of that bad experience, the Schengen zone is more careful with accepting new members now. Today, it wants to act more carefully and avoid the accession of new countries before it is sure that they have solved their problems with the organized crime, corruption and illegal migration.

According to the former prime minister of Bulgaria, Mr. Boyko Borisov, the country failed to enter the Schengen zone because of the political crises it was in. During a meeting of the Council of Ministers he stated that Bulgaria could have entered the Schengen zone by air on March 14th as only the Netherlands were against that. The political turmoil in the country however set an alarm to all the member states of the Schengen passport free zone. It became clear that the debate on the acceptance of Bulgaria and Romania in this border free area was postponed for the end of 2013. Certain diplomatic sources stated however that the two countries will not be accepted before the spring of 2014, even if they have very positive results in the reports that will be issued in the end of the year.

Bulgaria and Romania have to show better and more convincing results on their fight against the organized crime and the corruption. Mr. Boyko Borisov in his capacity of Prime Minister and his government resigned from power at the end of February and are preparing for early elections on May 12th.

Support and solidarity is being showed to Bulgaria and Romania by a group of young people. The two countries’ bids for admission in the travel passport free Schengen zone were postponed for an indefinite time in the beginning of March. The young people formed a group, the aim of which is to ensure that the two countries enter the zone soon, since they are ready for that step. Currently, the initiative Stepping into Schengen is focused on getting attention to the real factors and reasons behind the denial and on the rights that the membership in the zone gives. According to the leaders of the project, the Schengen zone is very important and affects many people, but the decisions taken by its members are not transparent. They further think that the postponement is based on certain political issues and criteria that Bulgaria and Romania are believed not meeting. Accused of having issues with corruption and security, the two countries have actually invested a lot in meeting the technical requirements and in securing their borders.

The Stepping into Schengen initiative has another key role as well and this is to make sure that the decision taken by the member states of Schengen from now on are transparent and not based on political or other motives. Currently, the people from the initiative are focusing on informing people about Schengen zone in general. The initiative is addressing all people that stand for equality, transparency and tolerance.