Bulgarian politicians and political analysts have been forecasting in recent months that in the autumn of 2015 Bulgaria would finally join the Schengen Area, although its accession would be partial in the beginning, i.e. by air borders and by sea borders. Bulgaria’s authorities expected that the first step towards its Schengen membership would be made during the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council on October 8 and 9. Unfortunately, the enlargement of the Schengen Area was not included in the daily agenda of that council. Representatives of Luxembourg’s rotational presidency told Bulgarian media that the ambassadors of Germany, the Netherlands and some other EU member states were against the inclusion of that issue in the council’s agenda. In fact, the Netherlands has been strongly opposing Bulgaria’s and Romania’s accession to the Schengen for many years on the pretext that judicial reform in these countries was insufficient and that corruption and organized crime was flourishing there.

The EU Ministers of Interior discussed in Brussels the migrant problem, as well as the effective managing of the EU external borders. Bulgaria’s Minister of Interior Rumiana Bachvarova bound the discussion of these two topics with the Schengen issue. Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Area is now a matter of EU security, Minister Bachvarova said and pointed out that the lack of full access to some visa and Schengen information systems restricted Bulgaria’s opportunity to deal even better with the migratory pressure and combat smuggling and human trafficking.

So, the saga regarding Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen continues. Being members of the EU, Bulgaria’s citizens are still waiting for the moment when they would be able to cross freely all countries from the European Union without having to show their passports or IDs at the border checkpoints.

This year’s season of the Schengen saga finished with two European visits to Sofia. After his meeting with Bulgaria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Mitov the Foreign Minister of the Netherlands Bert Koenders pointedly kept his hands in his pocket. Minister Mitov told Koenders that in times of unprecedented migratory pressure towards Europe, Bulgaria has been in fact fulfilling its responsibilities very well and was practically acting as a member of the Schengen Area, without being such yet. Bert Koenders replied that Bulgaria fulfilled the technical conditions for Schengen Membership, which was of great importance, which could be interpreted as: So far, so good, but you have to wait a bit more.

The President of the European Council Donald Tusk also visited Bulgaria recently. He also repeated the same words and said that practically Bulgaria was technically ready to join Schengen, but has not done enough in the judiciary reform field and the fight against corruption and organized crime. Bulgaria’s Premier Borissov showed courage and said that Bulgaria proved that it was a better Schengen border than half of the EU countries and added that he was feeling offended raising the Schengen issue again and again.

The next season of the Schengen saga is on its way now. The Netherlands is to take the Presidency of the European Council between January and June 2016. It is very unlikely that the Netherlands would solve the issue regarding Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Area during its Presidency. Macedonia’s President George Ivanov had to pay an official visit to Sofia to say that the migrant crisis reminded Europe that the Balkans are a very important artery that connects Europe with the Middle East and that the refugee crisis and that corridor turned into a real test of Schengen’s functional condition and that the EU has failed on that test.

According to some observers, the question now is whether the Schengen Area is now an abstract fiction, or a dream that never came true. Many Schengen states acted independently and started to protect their borders with well-tested means, including methods dating back to the period of the Cold War. In this context Bulgaria’s efforts to join that area appear rather sham ones. However, the saga regarding Bulgaria’s membership to Schengen would continue for a long time, something typical of all best-selling TV series.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov