Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said on Wednesday that there are no signs that Bulgaria and Romania are going their separate ways on joining the Schengen area. He said this during a question and answer session on social networks, reports the Bulgarian news agency BTA, quoted by Agerpres.

Commenting on Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Colacu’s statement in an interview with Bloomberg on Tuesday that Bucharest may consider separating its Schengen bid from Bulgaria’s efforts, Denkov said the assessment was only for “internal use” in Romania.

“We fulfilled our obligations regarding the rule of law. We have made exceptional progress in border security. We have to move towards Schengen together because we have to solve our common problems with Romania. There is no reason to discuss such a separation,” Denkov added.

“What we still hear as arguments against is that the Schengen system does not work, this is what the Chancellor of Austria and the Minister of Foreign Affairs say,” the prime minister recalled. “This is not our problem, but the EU’s problem, and we have every reason to say that this cannot be an obstacle for Bulgaria,” he said, adding that he was “moderately optimistic that we will be able to win this conversation because we have all the necessary arguments.”

Meanwhile, BTA notes, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said at a press conference in Belgium that the best scenario is for Romania and Bulgaria to join the Schengen area together, and “this is the essence of all negotiations and all attempts to convince those who have reservations about this.” .

“We have every reason to adhere to the plan for the transition to the euro”

Regarding the Eurozone, Denkov reminded that there are three main criteria for joining. “We are doing very well on two of them,” he noted. The Prime Minister added that only the level of inflation in Bulgaria exceeds the desired threshold and clarified that there are precedents for this criterion, and Croatia is one of them. “She [Croaţia] was admitted to the euro zone without meeting this criterion,” Denkov said.

He added that Bulgaria has every reason to demand “a review that shows that there are no problems with the country’s financial stability.”

“These estimates will be made in April-May next year, when it is not clear what inflation will look like,” Denkov added. “We have every reason to stick to the plan,” he said, noting that later in the day the Council of Ministers will consider an updated national plan for the transition to the euro, which he said will take place on January 1, 2025.