Our acceptance into Schengen is in practice the completion of the process of Bulgaria's full acceptance into the EU - a community of free movement of goods, people and capital. Let us recall that in the Schengen area there are also several countries that are not EU members, such as Liechtenstein and Switzerland, Yordan Bozhilov, chairman of the Sofia Security Forum and former deputy minister of defense, told the Bulgarian National Radio.
He added that our acceptance also has some risks. Among them are, for example, the greater pressure to control external borders after the abolition of internal ones, between EU member states, and this means more work on the part of the Ministry of Interior and saturation with border police officers along the strip with Turkey, Serbia, and North Macedonia.
The fact that we entered Schengen does not mean that criminal activity will appear "initially", but the idea is for each country to control its territory well, and those along the border to prevent the entry of illegal goods, illegal migrants, etc., said Yordan Bozhilov.
He pointed out that for us as an external border it is important to saturate the border crossings and the entire green border with well-trained and motivated people, with the necessary technical means. "It is very important to attract European funds for this, since the pressure is not only for Bulgaria. We must demand sharing of efforts from the entire EU - both with funds, with "Frontex" employees, and with information. These are many more levers to manage the processes".
Risk factors exist, regardless of whether we are members of Schengen. It is possible that some channels will be redirected through Bulgaria, but this can happen even now, the chairman of the Sofia Security Forum recalled.
The benefits of Schengen are much greater, the risks are manageable, Yordan Bozhilov pointed out.
He added that the borders are mainly guarded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but the army also helps. "Increasing the defense budget has another argument - the war in Ukraine, which is on the territory of Europe and there is a risk that the war will spread to other EU countries, so we must protect ourselves from military aggression. In recent years, we have not invested enough and now we must quickly catch up. It is entirely achievable for Bulgaria to allocate 2% of GDP".
According to Bozhilov, there are now many systems based on artificial intelligence, this is not something new.