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BRUSSELS — Bulgaria will invite Dutch and Austrian customs “experts” to observe operations at the Turkish border to try to ease concerns that are impeding its bid to join the Schengen passport-free travel area, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov told POLITICO on Wednesday.
Denkov identified Austria and the Netherlands as the two key skeptics on Bulgaria’s entry to Schengen, and said he would hold meetings with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Thursday to address their concerns.
These largely focus on migration, particularly at the notoriously problematic Turkish-Bulgarian border, which has long been a major transit point for smuggling people, narcotics and arms from the Middle East into Europe.
“We will try to involve as much as possible the partners from Austria and the Netherlands so they can see what is at the border, because it’s not easy there,” said Denkov, who was in Brussels for the first time this week since he took office earlier this month.
He said he welcomed co-operation with both countries, which would then be able to make “technical recommendations” on policing the Turkish border. He added a special unit was being created in Bulgaria, together with Europol, to combat people trafficking.
The plan to share customs expertise is part of an “international pilot project” launched in March under Bulgaria’s previous government and is partially funded by the European Commission, is an attempt to “build trust” and show that “we do whatever is possible there,” the prime minister said.
One of the chief points of concerns is the the Kapitan Andreevo border checkpoint on the Turkish border, which has been infamous as an entry point into the EU for smugglers and a place where importers would be extorted.
The border post was long said to be controlled by organized crime groups and, although the Bulgarian authorities said last year they had regained control of its operations under the previous reformist government led by Kiril Petkov, Denkov said the authorities still faced “problems” at Kapitan Andreevo.
“We know part of the business people that use Kapitan Andreevo for their illegal business,” the prime minister said. “But from knowing some of these people to blocking everything that is there, is a fight.”
“We have quite a success at this. But it has not been finished yet,” Denkov added.
Still, Bulgaria has also struggled with Dutch and Austrian politicians, who have used debates over Schengen for domestic political capital.
In order to try to make progress, Denkov said he would ask Rutte and Nehammer to ensure that they raised “specific concerns” to which Sofia would be able to take concrete action.
“Our main request to them is, if they define any specific problem, to define it clearly so we know what is the problem that has to be solved,” Denkov said, adding that it “was not always like that in the past.”
In April, Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said Vienna would maintain its veto as a “warning signal“ to Brussels until it saw a a “sustained decline” in asylum requests in Austria, which has the highest rate of asylum applications per-capita in the EU.
