Schengen High on Austrian Chancellor Agenda in Sofia

Bulgaria's PM Borisov (left) was welcomed in Vienna by Austrian chancellor Werner Faymann (rigth) on July 20 last year. Photo by Council of Ministers

Austrian Chancellor Werner Faymann arrives on a two-day visit to Sofia on Tuesday to discuss Bulgaria's investment climate, the fight against corruption and last but not least its accession to the Schengen Agreement.

In an official statement, issued right before the visit, the chancellery noted that Austria supported Bulgaria and Romania's accession in March provided that all requirements for it had been met.

Accession is uncertain, however, since a report on the security of Bulgaria's frontier with Turkey was negative, Austrian media commented on Monday.

In the last weeks of 2010 and the beginning of 2011, key EU member states - most notably France, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Finland - declared their opposition to the Schengen accession of the two Balkan states, saying it would be premature as they still face issues with the implementation of the Schengen requirements with respect to controlling what will become their external EU/Schengen borders.

What is more, since December 2010 the Interior Ministers of France and Germany as well as France's EU Affairs Minister Laurent Wauquiez have voiced additional criticism with respect to Bulgaria and Romania as far as the progress in their judicial reform and rule of law is concerned.

They have demanded that the European Commission's post-EU accession monitoring of the two newcomers under the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (most notably EC's annual progress reports expected in July) should be taken into account when deciding upon Bulgaria and Romania's Schengen fitness.

In spite of the assurances made by the government in Sofia that Bulgaria will be fully qualified for Schengen accession by March 2011, it is virtually impossible that Bulgaria and Romania will be approved for entry according to the original deadline.

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov has recently mentioned he hoped that Bulgaria will make it into Schengen by the end of 2011, which appears to be a more plausible timeline.