"The figure of losses for Bulgaria from not being accepted into Schengen by land is startling. What we announced earlier this week is that we produced a report that measured the exact consequences. The biggest loser is our country with missed taxes in the budget amounting to BGN 303 million on an annual basis. This is a startling amount, considering that we are talking about a budget deficit and we are wondering where the extra money can come from, and we are wasting over BGN 300 million a year", said the member of the expert group on transport in the European Commission Nikolay Rashkov in the studio of the show "Brussels 1".
The missed benefits for the economy are over BGN 1 billion, he added. On average, between 15 and 18%, the prices of the goods in the store also increase.
On the air of Bulgaria ON AIR, he also commented that Bulgaria meets all the requirements that were requested for full membership, including the protection of our external borders. According to him, if Bulgaria had become a full member, these losses would have been significantly reduced at the first stage and then eliminated.
"It is extremely important what happens in the European Parliament, in Brussels, and given that this is an institution that is fighting for more and more legislative power, in our case it is extremely important what people our country will send to EP and it is very important that they understand transport and logistics. If we don't allow transport to function hindered, it will have disastrous consequences," Rashkov said.
When asked by Milena Milotinova whether, after the noisy scandals with the chief secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the "Eight Dwarfs" and the Notary, there are other countries behind Austria that do not want to let us fully into Schengen, he replied that his hope is that this will not happen, because he thinks that full acceptance into the Schengen area is a matter of time.< /p>