Bulgaria Successfully Managing Borders After Full Schengen Accession

Bulgaria’s Interior Minister, Daniel Mitov, said that the country’s border with Türkiye is among the best-protected external European Union frontiers, based on the statistical data.

The Minister said that the Interior Ministry is managing quite well the increasing amounts of drugs being seized and human traffickers arrested along Bulgaria’s Schengen borders, Schengen.News reports. 

Mitov addressed the journalists about his department’s performance since Bulgaria became a full member of the Schengen Zone on January 1, 2025. 

Bulgarian Police Aims to Achieve Even Better Results 
Border Police Director, Anton Zlatanov, said the aim is to keep the good results registered up to this point and achieve even better results. According to him, the migratory pressure situation has marked an improvement since the beginning of this year, according to a report from the Bulgarian News Agency. 

According to Zlatanov, the Bulgarian border police are continuing their checks at the borders with Schengen members Greece and Romania, in spite of the fact that routine border controls have been lifted.

He considered it important to keep migratory pressure from shifting from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to the Greek-Bulgarian border.

Representative to Bulgaria Yordanka Chobanova said Bulgarian authorities have shown remarkable dedication to protecting the borders.

Bulgaria Became a Full Schengen Member in January 
Bulgaria together with Romania became the newest Schengen Zone country on January 1, 2025, abolishing all land border controls. 

The decision came following the approval from the European Union Ministers in order to allow Romania and Bulgaria to join Schengen from January 1, 2025. 

EU member states have decided to remove checks on persons at the internal land borders with and between Bulgaria and Romania from 1 January 2025.Council of the European Union 

Bulgaria and Romania entered the Schengen Zone partially in March 2024, by air and sea, however, land border controls remained effective. 

Among the conditions to become part of the EU Schengen Area for Bulgaria and Romania was to keep the number of irregular migrants low. 

However, the data from Frontex revealed that in 2024 there was a decline of 38 per cent in irregular border crossings in EU countries.

Source: https://schengen.news/bulgaria-successfully-managing-borders-after-full-schengen-accession/