Bulgaria’s political will to weed out corruption has increased, says Finland’s Minister of the Interior Päivi Räsänen (Christ. Dem.) after meeting with Bulgaria’s Minister of the Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov in Helsinki on Thursday.
Relations between Finland and Bulgaria have been strained by Finland’s opposition to allowing Bulgaria and Romania into the European Union’s Schengen treaty.
All existing 25 Schengen countries need to give their approval before any new members can be admitted into the zone which allows free movement within the area without routine border inspections.
Räsänen said after the meeting that Finland’s stance has helped encourage the implementation of reforms in Bulgaria.
Tsvetanov has previously said in the Bulgarian media that Finland’s stance was based on Finnish domestic politics. Similar accusations have been voiced in Romania.
On Thursday Tsvetanov would not say if he still thinks this way. He nevertheless had some indirect criticism of Finland, saying that Bulgaria has met all of the technical requirements for the Schengen zone. “The criteria should not be changed when someone has fulfilled them”, he said.
Räsänen admitted that Bulgaria had met the technical requirements of the Schengen treaty. However, Finland feels that the country should better fulfil the commitments it made in the EU membership talks to upgrade its legal system and weed out corruption.
Finland fears that otherwise crime from outside the EU might spread into the zone through Romania and Bulgaria.
“On the basis of today’s discussion my optimism has grown”, Räsänen said.
Finland will re-examine its stance in March. If Finland judges that progress has been sufficient, it would approve of Bulgaria’s entry in two stages, with sea and air borders opened in March and land borders in July.
