President Rumen Radev on Tuesday drew attention to the protection of the EU's external border as a factor for the security of Bulgarian citizens and for speeding up the country's European integration. Radev was speaking at a working meeting on EU external border protection, held in Sofia on his initiative.
The meeting was attended by Prime Minister Galab Donev, Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev, National Investigation Service Director Borislav Sarafov, Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Petar Todorov and security service chiefs.
The President stressed that for the first time Bulgaria has a clear timeframe for joining the Schengen border-free area, which should become a fact by October 2023, "but the process can and should be expedited".
Speakers at the meeting discussed measures to enhance the partnership between the institutions in charge of border protection and the security services in neighbouring countries, the fight against offences related to illegal migration, the improvement of coordination among anti-crime institutions to uncover the routes and networks for transporting illegal migrants through Bulgaria, and the need to upgrade the surveillance of the external EU border and the equipment of the border police.
/RY/
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