Vladimir Mitev
Daniel Laurer is a member of the Bulgarian Parliament and one of the founders of the political party “We continue the change”. He was Minister of Innovation and Growth in Bulgaria in the government of Kiril Petkov (December 2021-August 2022). In the current Parliament, Mr Laurer is a member of numerous friendship groups with EU countries, including Romania and Greece. He is a member of the European Council on Foreign Relations. In addition to his native Bulgarian, he speaks English, French, Russian, Hebrew and some German.
Daniel Laurer was interviewed by Bridge of Friendship’s Vladimir Mitev about his initiative with Romanian and Greek MEPs to remove border controls between Greece, Bulgaria and Romania. Laurer explained how he sees the technical/legal side of the case and what his political chances are of implementation. Laurer said that the proposal is open to all parties and reflects not only the Bulgarian national interest but also the regional interest of the three EU members in South East Europe.
Mr Laurer, we are speaking a few days after you issued a statement, together with MEPs from Romania and Greece, calling for the abolition of border controls between Bulgaria, Romania and Greece. What action do you intend to take from now on towards this goal that you have set yourself and what ambitions do you have in teaming up with them?
Hello! You asked the question very correctly: what is the aim of this initiative? Our goal and ambition, as the people of Bulgaria and Romania, should be one and the same: both the Bulgarian and the Romanian people have fully earned the right to move freely in Europe within the Schengen area. We are all aware that, although both countries fulfil the conditions for accession, we are currently hostages to the internal political processes in Austria. We all understand this, but this in no way removes Austria’s obligation to recognise the right of Bulgaria and Romania to move freely within the Schengen area. And we have no intention of reducing the political pressure just because we have reached an agreement by air and water to grant this access to Bulgaria and Romania from March this year. This is a good start, but it does not satisfy us at all.
The idea of this initiative is to take the next step, which could demonstrate to the Austrian side that, even when there are no border controls between Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, migration pressure in Austria does not change at all. Therefore, if this initiative is successful and this summer people and goods will be able to move freely between the three countries, this will, of course, be a great relief for us citizens and for companies doing business between these countries, but from a purely political point of view it will be an extremely important demonstration of the thesis that both Bulgarian and Romanian society are defending, namely that we have built a sufficiently strong defence of the external borders of the Union for which we are responsible. So internal traffic can be quite easy without passport control.
This initiative has both a political and a technical or legal aspect. First, let me ask you about the technical aspect. Only a month ago, Bulgaria and Romania agreed with Austria, on the occasion of their accession to Schengen, to strengthen controls at the Romanian-Bulgarian border. This initiative, if implemented, will lead to the abolition of these controls. To what extent is this legally possible, as both countries have declared that, once they join Schengen, they will strengthen controls at their common border.
The strengthening of controls is primarily at the external borders of the Union and, as you know, Bulgaria, which I can speak about with confidence because we know the figures, is doing very well. The Ministry of the Interior reports that migration pressure and people who are caught in the country have decreased significantly, and this is due to the doubling of patrols on both the Turkish and Bulgarian sides. So we are confident that, as far as the external borders are concerned, internal border control from our point of view for Romania and Greece will not cause any disruption on the migration front in Austria.
As regards the current controls, which have been intensified: these are at the request of the Austrian Government and, therefore, if it is agreed that there will be no passport controls for the summer season, then they will be abolished. Of course, this is all subject to intergovernmental agreement, because Bulgaria will implement its agreed measures until the current measures are changed, namely with increased checks, so that the public and the Austrian Government can feel reassured that we are doing our job.
So do you believe that Bulgaria, Romania and Greece have the legal right to remove these border controls at will, without the need for coordination at European level or with Austria?
On the contrary, the removal of controls can only be done through the coordination of, let’s call it, the “Schengen Council”, or the ministers of interior and migration of all the Schengen countries. That is the forum where this decision should be taken and approved.
The political aspect is also worth discussing, because we see a very influential figure from Romania supporting this initiative. It is Dacian Ciolos. He is a former Prime Minister of the country, a former Commissioner, a former President of the Renew Europe Group in the European Parliament. He also has support from Greece, which is a new element. Before, when this initiative was discussed, it was always only between Bulgaria and Romania. To what extent, however, even these new political forces, which support the initiative, are enough, in your opinion, for there to be progress and are they enough to achieve this ambition that it has?
The political initiative is in its infancy and is triggered by the initiative of people living on both sides of the border. There have been many voices from Greek tourist chambers in the north of Greece, who feel discriminated against by the fact that Bulgarian and Romanian tourists can fly to Greek islands in the south of Greece without checks, but in the north of Greece they have to be checked and wait for hours at the border. It is neither fair, nor economically viable, nor, if you like, environmentally friendly, to have to wait for hours at the border for a running engine. So they are rightly outraged.
Politically, the initiative is in its infancy and we will work very actively to make it a political activity, an active all-party political activity. Because achieving free movement for Bulgarians and Romanians is a worthwhile cause for all political parties. And here we hope for very broad support from the parliamentary parties of the countries concerned, from their parliamentary representatives in the European Parliament and from the European Commission itself, as well as from the national governments of the three countries. Ultimately, they will have to take the debate to the Council of Ministers on Schengen, so we will be looking for very broad support from all political forces on this national and I would say regional issue, which is so important for all people.
To what extent do you expect the Schengen issue, including this initiative that you support, to be an important topic in the discussions about the European elections in Bulgaria?
For us, the Schengen issue was an election promise in the last national elections in Bulgaria. You know that, for a long time, not only Austria, but also the Netherlands and many other countries in Europe have had serious concerns about the justice and the rule of law in general in our country. Many of the recommendations of international legal organisations were completely ignored for decades, and this only happened after the advent of the ongoing change and their coalition with democratic Bulgaria. This justice reform agenda to guarantee the rule of law in Bulgaria was finally adopted in the Bulgarian National Assembly in the form of a constitutional amendment. This was the main driving force for the Netherlands to lift its veto. So, for us, achieving Schengen membership is an undeniable success for Continuous Change and Democratic Bulgaria and, in particular, for the Denkov cabinet at this time.
The fact that Austria’s internal political problems require the current government to continue to restrict Bulgaria and Romania completely illegally by denying land access is a temporary phenomenon and we will continue to actively campaign for its removal. There should be absolutely no doubt about that. At the same time, we are fully aware that the opposition will try to portray partial access to the Schengen area as a failure of the current government, but we all understand that this is, in fact, a huge step forward for both Bulgarian and Romanian society. And land access across these borders is only a matter of time and political perseverance on the part of all political forces to exert irrevocable pressure on Austria to make this happen as soon as possible.
Photo: Daniel Laurer (source: We Continue the Change)
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