The European Commission has urged the Council of the European Union to include Bulgaria in the Schengen area.

At a press conference, the Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos said: "Schengen is one of the major achievements of European integration and we are fully committed to safeguard, preserve and strengthen it. The absence of internal border control constitutes the very essence of Schengen. But in a common area without border controls, security concerns are common too. This is why we must do everything to preserve the careful balance between free movement and mobility on the one hand, and security on the other. And we can only achieve this through a coordinated and united Schengen framework, which should include Romania and Bulgaria too."

Thus the Commission has invited the Council to take the decision of fully integrating Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area and lifting controls at the internal borders between these member states and their EU neighbors.

Bulgaria and Romania have demonstrated their capacity to defend the EU’s external borders and should therefore become members of our internal border-free zone, the European Commission also said.