“If Bulgaria and Romania are in Schengen we will be helping the processes we want to see happen in Europe more effectively.  We will be able to free human and material resources so as to protect the external borders better,” Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov said in Vienna, after a meeting with Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer. “We will be able to bring down the prices of the transportation of food and other goods from Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania towards Central and Eastern Europe. This means lower prices, lower inflation and more political stability,” the Bulgarian prime minister said.

“If we have any difference with Austria, it is in one ting only – whether if Bulgaria and Romania were inside Schengen they could help find these solutions more quickly, or if we are outside, we can help in any way,” Nikolay Denkov said further.

“To us, enlarging Schengen is unthinkable but that has nothing to do with Bulgaria and Romania, it is a question of security,” Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on his part said after the meeting, and added that Schengen must be mended, and until it is “we cannot extend this area”.