Bulgaria has made an unconventional move on its road to accession to the area for free movement of goods and persons. Bulgaria in Schengen is a booklet that Deputy PM Meglena Kuneva presented to her colleagues as the Council of Ministers convened on Wednesday.

"This is the cutting edge of our efforts over the recent weeks, after the positive signals we got during the first visit of PM Boyko Borissov to Brussels, from the presidents of the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council”, she said. “Political support for Bulgaria's accession to Schengen is available at the highest levels. However, sometimes the problem is buried in details and I should like to assure you that Bulgaria is ready for Schengen. The booklet has been compiled in friendly cooperation with the Ministry of Interior. It provides a concise presentation of what we have done plus a lot of photos showing our readiness to accede to the Area. It is going to be translated into English and I should like to ask the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to promote the booklet in all EU member states so that we could acquaint them with our results.”

Special attention in the booklet has been given to the inputs of the Bulgarian border police in the work of FRONTEX, the European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union. It also carries the plans of the government to tackle the crisis arising from increased migration pressure on the territory of the Republic of Bulgaria. A special chapter is dedicated to cooperation with the border authorities of Romania, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia and Serbia.

With a resolution dated 8 June 2011, the European Parliament confirmed the readiness of Bulgaria and Romania to carry out Schengen law achievements. On 9 June 2011, the Council carried conclusions verifying that Bulgaria and Romania had complied with the necessary conditions for the implementation of these achievements. However, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Finland asked for a delay of Schengen accession discussions until the release of the summer Bulgaria and Romania reports under the Mechanism for Cooperation and Verification. France and Germany bind the readiness for accession to the Area to the readiness of the two countries and more notably of Bulgaria to tackle growing migration pressure. In a spirit of compromise the conclusions have been passed with the specification that the Council would revisit the issue a.s.a.p. but not later than September 2011.

So far, a decision has not been made as to the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the free travel area. The Bulgarian government's stance is that this country's accession to Schengen should not be bound to the results of the European Commission report under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism due in January that monitors justice.

At the end of last month Meglena Kuneva warned that the report would be a bitter pill for the country because the competition between Bulgaria and Romania would be to the benefit of the latter. Regardless of the fact that Bulgaria has complied with all technical requirements for accession to Schengen not all EU member states believe that it will be able to cater for the necessary security of the Area. A few days ago, Dutch Frans Timmermans, Vice President of the European Commission and in charge of Bulgaria and Romania's monitoring, said the report should not be bound to the two country's accession to the Schengen Area.

English Daniela Konstantinova