European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ilva Johansson expressed today the expectation that by the end of the year there will be decision to drop the internal Schengen land borders of Bulgaria and Romania. She spoke to journalists in Luxembourg, where the two-day meeting of the EU Council on Justice and Home Affairs begins, BTA reported.
Bulgaria and Romania are in Schengen, all that remains is to remove internal (land) border checks. I foresee that happening this year, said Johansson.
Belgian Interior Minister Anneliese Verlinden indicated that she is strongly convinced of the need for Schengen to have no internal border checks. Citizens' security must be ensured, increased checks on external borders are needed, she said. We are working, I hope we will make progress, the minister added in response to a question about the expectations of Sofia and Bucharest, and the resistance of Vienna. In December last year, Austria was the only country in the EU that did not support a complete abolition of border checks at the Bulgarian and Romanian Schengen borders.
Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Nicole de Moor noted that today begins the last meeting of the European Ministers of the Interior and Justice under her country's presidency of the Council of the EU. She added that the ministers will discuss the future of the visa policy against the background of the reported abuses and expressed the expectation that the European Commission's proposal to extend the protection for Ukrainian refugees will be approved.