Hungary's Orban Calls Bulgaria Not Being Member Of Schengen Area 'Unfair'

Hungary's Orban Calls Bulgaria Not Being Member of Schengen Area 'Unfair'

It is unfair that Bulgaria is not yet a member of the European Union's visa-less Schengen area despite support from the European Commission, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday.

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th December, 2022) It is unfair that Bulgaria is not yet a member of the European Union's visa-less Schengen area despite support from the European Commission, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday.

"It is totally unfair that Bulgaria is not accepted yet as a member of Schengen area," Orban said upon his arrival at the EU-Western Balkans summit in Tirana.

Currently, the Schengen visa-free zone includes 26 countries � all the EU's member states except for Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania, and non-EU states Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein.

In October, the European Parliament approved Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia joining the Schengen area. In November, the European Commission also proposed that the three countries be finally allowed to join the Schengen zone after years of faithfully following its rules. However, Austria and the Netherlands have so far opposed the expansion of the area.