Bulgaria and Romania will not be separated on their way to joining Europe's open borders, President Rumen Radev told journalists, commenting on Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu's announcement that Romania will fully join the Schengen area from January 2025. Ciolaku said this after a crucial meeting in neighbouring Hungary on Friday. "We are waiting for positive news on 12 December," Radev announced, but asked journalists not to speculate prematurely on the issue. 

He told reporters that at the recent summit of the European political community in Budapest, he had held in-depth talks with a number of European leaders, including those of Austria, the Netherlands and representatives of the European Commission. 

The President also commented on the situation in Bulgaria. Asked about allegations that the caretaker government had acted in the interests of the DPS-New Beginnings party, the Head of State pointed out that it was the Council of Ministers that had "quickly handed over a building in the centre of Sofia to Delyan Peevski's party, leaving civil servants on the street with hardly any notice". 

"Do we still have to ask ourselves: who makes decisions in the government and how, and what kind of rule of law can we even talk about, while the oligarchy sanctioned under the Magnitsky act swallows up the state in big bites?" the president asked rhetorically.