BTA. Romanian President Iohannis: I Will Visit Bulgaria Next Week to Demonstrate Readiness to Enter Schengen Area

YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 9, ARMENPRESS.Romanian President Klaus Iohannis said Thursday that one of the topics of the special meeting of the European Council will be migration, and reiterated that Romania is neither a source of migration nor a transit country and that it knows how to protect its borders, Romanian television Digi 24 reported.

"But the problem is European, it is clear that we also want to participate in finding the best solutions," Iohannis said ahead of his participation in the Council, which is taking place in Brussels on February 9-10.

He said that the Council will discuss issues related to the protection of EU's external borders, faster turn-away of migrants, faster processing of asylum applications and expressed Romania's readiness to cooperate on these issues.

"Do not confuse migration with Schengen. Schengen is about the freedom of movement of the European citizen. When we talk about migration, we are talking about procedures that concern people coming from outside the EU area. According to the opinion of some member states, there is a link between these things and for this reason we want to find the best solutions," said Iohannis.

The Romanian President said that o him, his country and his people it is important to join the Schengen area, but he hesitated to link the discussion to a certain date. According to him, Schengen accession depends on many considerations of a European level. "Unfortunately, they also concern domestic politics in some member states, I don't think this is a good thing, but it cannot be ignored," Iohannis noted.

He said that his country will take joint action with Bulgaria and that he will go to Bulgaria in the following week for talks and to signal readiness for accession.