[caption id="attachment_1720" align="alignleft" width="387"] Austria Flag[/caption] Austria's Ministry of the Interior confirmed that the Austrian government continues to be adamantly opposed to Romania and Bulgaria joining the Schengen Area. While emphasising that Vienna’s clear position regarding this issue remains unchanged, the Ministry has said that as long as the system “Schengen” does not work, there is no point in expanding it.

“The fact is that nothing has changed in Austria’s clear position. As long as the system ‘Schengen’ does not work, there is no point in expanding it. Migration pressure remains high. This means that the external border protection clearly does not work. Against this background and from today’s point of view, Austria is unable to support the accession of Bulgaria and Romania at this stage,” the Ministry of the Interior stressed.

According to local media, a foreign team comprising officials from Austria and the Netherlands will review Bulgaria's preparedness for the Schengen area in September of this year. The same said that these remarks were made by Kalin Stoyanov, the interior minister of Bulgaria, when he met with Ylva Johansson, the European commissioner for the interior, and Eric van der Burgh, the minister of migration of the Netherlands. The Austrian Ministry of Interior, who saw the statements as fictional, refuted such assertions. “There will be no joint foreign mission, this is fictitious,” Austria’s Ministry of Interior said. Despite the Commission's assessments that the Balkan nation has satisfied all conditions, Austria and the Netherlands banned Bulgaria's entry to the Schengen region in December of last year, citing worries over illicit migration. The Bulgarian Interior Minister also provided information on the steps Sofia has taken to implement the recommendations made by the European Commission in a report on the rule of law. Bulgaria's government declared in July that it has established a governance plan with the goal of joining the Eurozone by January 1, 2025, as well as the Schengen Area by the end of this year. Despite this, a Politico story suggests that Bulgaria's Schengen Zone membership may not be formalised anytime soon due to the Netherlands' caretaker administration. However, the European Union's Parliament passed a resolution last month encouraging the EU Council to take this issue seriously and allow Bulgaria and Romania to join the EU's passport-free zone as its newest members.