A shortage of 3,500 border guards has been noted at the Bulgarian border, according to the National Service Border Police director, General Valery Grigorov.
As reported by the local media Novinite, Grigorov said that 1,250 employees of the border police had been fired since 2009, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“To this figure, we must add another 1,800 people, laid off in 2006 through a structural reform carried out by Rumen Petkov. This shortage cannot be compensated with 40, 50 or 100 people sent by the army or the Ministry of the Interior,” he also noted.
General Grigorov explained that after joining the EU, Bulgaria began preparations for entering the Schengen Area, adding that at the time, the Border Guard was equipped with technical means and equipment, but they are no longer, which he said is a ruthless and deliberate destruction of services and the Ministry of the Interior.
In addition, Grigorov revealed that some of the systems with competencies for guarding the border, coordination and dialogue with neighbouring countries need to be fixed.
According to him, it is not acceptable to send two police officers 20-30 kilometres from the first residence since, before, the groups were at least six people.
On September 13, the Czech Presidency of the EU called on the ministers of Bulgaria and Romania to discuss the membership of these countries in Schengen.
A week later, the Members of the EU Parliament again urged the countries of the EU to allow Bulgaria and Romania to become the last members of the borderless EU Schengen area as soon as possible.
