Bulgarian Foreign Affairs minister: Bulgaria will be ready to join Schengen in March 2011. I hope Romania will make efforts to be prepared

Both Romania an Bulgaria need to continue their efforts to be prepared to join Schengen in March 2011 but Bulgaria will surely comply to all requirements and will be ready to join in March 2011, Bulgarian Foreign Affairs minister Nikolay Mladenov declared in an interview for Standart News.

He also expressed his hope that Romania will make the same efforts to be ready to join Schengen in March. The Bulgarian official considers that Romania reacted differently to a possible use of the monitoring mechanism as a reason against joining Schengen because Romania and Bulgaria are different countries that treat problems differently.

Mladenov admitted Bulgaria has problems with the judiciary, which, for him, is a reason for the existence of the monitoring mechanism but he underlined that the EU will find a way to allow Bulgaria to join Schengen in 2011.