Austria Softens Stand on Bulgaria's Schengen Accession

Austrian president Heinz Fischer (C) receives on 07 March 2011, Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov (R) in the interior courtyard of the Vienna Hofburg. EPA/BGNES

Austria is going to back Bulgaria's accession to the borderless Schengen Area based solely on the fulfillment of the Schengen criteria, and not on addition monitoring of the EU newcomer by the European Commission.

This was promised by Austrian President Heinz Fischer to his Bulgarian counterpart Georgi Parvanov in Vienna on Monday, as cited by BTA.

Fischer's statements are a notable departure from the position of the Austrian state expressed in the past few months in favor of binding Bulgaria's Schengen accession to the post-EU accession monitoring of the country's justice and home affairs by the European Commission, the so called Cooperation and Verification Mechanism.

Bulgaria was originally supposed to join Schengen together with Romania in March 2011. However, its failure to meet some border control criteria, and the political opposition of France and Germany – backed to date by Sweden and Austria, among others – has left the hopes of the two Balkan states to make it into Schengen up in the air. Bulgaria and Romania now hope to be able to join the borderless zone before the end of 2011.

"We have the hope that Bulgaria will become a member of Schengen within the Hungarian Presidency of the EU (i.e. by the end of June – editor's note)," Bulgarian President Parvanov stated in Vienna thanking Fischer for the support.

Parvanov assured his Austrian counterpart that all Bulgarian political parties are determined to have the state authorities cover all technical criteria for Schengen membership by mid March 2011.

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