Hungarian President Pal Schmitt: Bulgaria will join the Schengen zone

“Bulgaria has fulfilled the technical criteria for Schengen admission and we are fully convinced that the country would join and that this would happen soon, preferably in the near future,” Hungarian President Dr. Pal Schmitt said today at a joint press conference with his Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi Parvanov. Dr. Schmidt pointed out that many people were treating Schengen accession and the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism as the same problem, but these were separate and different issues.

According to him, during Hungary’s EU presidency, his country defended the interests of Bulgaria and Romania for entering the Schengen zone.

President Georgi Parvanov underlined Bulgaria’s gratitude for Hungary’s support for our entry into Schengen.

Parvanov also noted the two countries’ common position on the development of nuclear power engineering and their efforts for the implementation of projects like Nabucco and South Stream. The President expressed the readiness of Bulgartransgaz to join the Hungarian initiative NETS for linking the gas transiting networks of a number of countries in the region.

“The idea for joining the initiative for a wide regional gas transiting network has its logic and it is seeking more buffers against future crisis,” commented Georgi Parvanov. He pointed out that the issue had two sides - to find more sources and to ensure more safe routes for natural gas transportation from East to West. According to the Head of State, it is important for Bulgaria to build network interconnections with Greece, Turkey, Romania and Serbia at the first stage and link it to the network for which Hungary works at the next stage. Then we will really have maximum security guarantees.

Among the issues discussed by President Georgi Parvanov and Dr. Pal Schmidt were also the strengthening of energy security in the region and in Europe, common problems of the European policy and efforts for stabilisation of the European financial security.

The two Heads of State shared the view that the Cohesion Programme should be preserved in the future and that the agricultural policy should be maintained and improved.

The Presidents also commented the efforts to stabilise the European financial security - the future of the Eurozone and the measures undertaken in the two countries and with regard to Europe as a whole.

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