Bulgaria and Romania to enter Schengen in 2011-2012 - Slovenian minister

18:06 Mon 07 Jan 2008 - Elitsa Savova

An evaluation of Bulgaria and Romania’s readiness to join the Schengen area was launched, Slovenia interior minister Dragutin Mate told journalists, who had been invited to Ljubljana on the occasion of Slovenian EU presidency.

Bulgarian and Romania should join the area in 2011-2012, according to Mate.

As EU president, Slovenia said European integration of the Western Balkan countries was an important issue, Mate said as quoted by Bulgarian news agency BTA.

Slovenia wanted a stronger police co-operation between these countries in their fight against organised crime.

Training of Western Balkan policemen would be the first step in this direction.

Comments

Comments by yaser al khatib - 22:16 12 Aug 2008
	mr.mate said the right thing both of the two mentioned countries deserve to join the schengen area,thy play a large role in the eastern europe and have the capacity to join.all the eu members the join the eu in 2004 such as poland,slovakia and slovenia...etc have joind the schengen on 2007( after 3 years).romania and bulgaria joind the eu on 2007,i think,they suposed to join the schengen on 2010, not on 2011-2012.i lived in romania and i know it well,it deserves to join the schengen and it's people worth it as soon as possible.