Schengen Area Membership, Huge Step Forward For Bulgaria – Panev
Hon. Vladislav Panev, a member of the Bulgarian parliament, has described his country’s membership of the Schengen area as a huge step forward for his country.
Panev who made the description in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja, said membership of the Schengen area which takes effect from March 31, would enable Bulgaria to be a beneficiary of the free movement of persons, trade, and investment across the borders with its neighbours without restrictions.
Panev, who is on a 5-day visit to Nigeria at the invitation of the Nigerian National Assembly, said, “To be a full member of the Schengen area means that there are no borders at all between Bulgaria and the other European countries by air.
“So if you travel by air from Bulgaria, from Sofia, our capital, to Paris or Berlin, you will not cross any border control. You will not be checked by border controls.
“That’s a huge step forward; I must say that we are entering the Schengen area by air and by sea.
“The entering of the Schengen area by land probably will take place in 2025.
“Furthermore, that means that our ambassador here in Nigeria and our embassy here will be able to issue Schengen visas to Nigerian citizens travelling to Bulgaria,’’ he said.
Panev also said that his country’s primary goal in the past 25 years had been to become member of the EU and NATO.
“This goal has been achieved. We are members of these two organisations – from March 31st this year, or exactly in less than 30 days.
“We will become also members of the Schengen Agreement for the free movement of people.
“That’s why I believe that now is the right moment to turn our faces on Africa and Nigeria in particular and to invest more in our relations because they have their history.
“I mean, when I published photos of our trip to Nigeria, of our business meetings here, I was contacted by persons, friends in Bulgaria, whose relatives and fathers worked on the construction of the National Theatre in Lagos.
“There are a lot of positive attitudes towards Nigeria and Africa. We have to invest in this because we have the background and these relations can be transferred into the future.
“Our trade can become billions of US dollars for mutual benefit in both countries,’’ he said.
The chairman also spoke on the diplomatic relations between Nigeria and Bulgaria “ strongly believe that, first; Bulgaria and Nigeria have had diplomatic relations for the last 60 years.
“A lot of Bulgarian companies invested in the infrastructure of Nigerian, roads, buildings and so on. The National Theatre in Lagos was built by a Bulgarian engineering company.
“I strongly believe that the revival of those relations is beginning today,’’ he said.
NAN reports that Bulgaria is a country in South-eastern Europe, and a member of both NATO (since 2004) and the European Union (since 2007).
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia were invited to begin accession talks at the alliance’s Prague Summit in 2002.
On March 29, 2004, it officially became a member of the alliance, making this the largest wave of enlargement in NATO history.
