Caretaker Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev stated he was sure Bulgaria would join the Schengen area in December, as is the government’s target.

“Schengen’s door is wide open for Bulgaria,” he said, and added that this was the result of the efforts made by the caretaker cabinet. “Big sums were voted for the better protection of our land border with Turkey, parallel with this the Interior Ministry put in a great deal of work because we were subject to a peer review,” he explained. Minister Demerdzhiev added that at the Justice Council in Luxembourg, no one had pointed to Bulgaria as a current illegal migration route.