"I hope that Bulgaria and Romania will join the Schengen Area as quickly as possible", MEP Erik Bergkvist from the Group of Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats said for the BNR.

MEP Erik Bergkvist assured that Sweden’s Social Democrats would work towards placing Bulgaria’s and Romania’s Schengen accession on the priority list of the Swedish Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The Social Democratic Party is the largest political force in the Swedish Parliament, although it is not part of the country’s ruling coalition, the BNR’s correspondent in Brussels Angelina Piskova reported. 

According to Erik Bergkvist, "Sweden has established good contacts with some countries which would make things easier and help us make progress on the issue regarding Austria’s and the Netherlands' vetoes over Romania's and Bulgaria's integration in the Schengen space".