The President expressed his expectation that the regular government would take advantage of the achievements of the caretaker cabinet to speed up this country's accession to Schengen

Bulgaria and Austria will continue their partnership in the fight against illegal migration and the protection of the EU's external borders for the sake of the security of European citizens. This was the common position of President Rumen Radev and Austrian Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer, who held a meeting in Vienna today. At the invitation of the Austrian Chancellor, the Bulgarian head of state is on a working visit to Austria to participate in this year's edition of the European Wachau Forum.

Bulgaria is working to join Schengen this year, Rumen Radev stressed at the meeting. The President also expressed his expectation that the regular Bulgarian government would take advantage of the achievements of the caretaker cabinet to materialise this country's endeavour in this direction.

The two discussed the European strategic approach for the management of external borders over the next five years, with Bulgaria's priority role, including providing financial support to our country.

Radev expressed his expectation that more and more member states would send their representatives to Bulgaria in the task force on countering illegal migration, which was initiated as a result of the enhanced cooperation between Bulgaria and Austria. Its focus is on investigating the financial and organisational networks in Europe that are driving this criminal activity, and the President expressed the hope that the new regular government will open the centre of the task force within the deadline already committed.

During the meeting, Rumen Radev and Carl Nehammer also discussed a wide range of issues of Bulgarian-Austrian relations, including economic and investment cooperation, security partnership, as well as topics on the EU agenda.