European Commission: Bulgaria's partial acceptance into Schengen is very important

The decision taken at the end of last year, in connection with the entry of Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen area, is "very, very important", said European Commissioner for Internal Affairs Ylva Johansson, Agerpress reported.
The representative of the EC made this assessment before the informal meeting of the European Ministers of the Interior, organized at the Egmont Palace in Brussels by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU.
"This meeting will be an occasion to recall the great achievements since the end of last year. A great achievement, historic, and now, during the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU, we will focus on implementation. We will also look at the great achievement in terms of access of Romania and Bulgaria to Schengen, achieved in the last days of the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU. That was also very, very important," Johansson said.
BGNES reminds that the EU voted to drop the control for Bulgaria and Romania on the air and sea borders with the countries of the Schengen area.
The main topics of the informal meeting are migration, the fight against drug trafficking, disinformation and the situation of Ukrainian citizens who arrived in the European Union after being forced to leave their country due to the unprovoked and unjustified aggression launched by Russia against Ukraine on February 24, 2022 Mr.
On the other hand, she emphasized that it is important to see how law enforcement approaches the problem of online disinformation, especially with the help of artificial intelligence.
The subject was also touched upon by the Belgian Minister of the Interior, Anneliese Verlinden. According to the representative of the Belgian presidency of the Council of the EU, online disinformation is a threat to democracy in the member states of the European Union, and in order to fight this phenomenon, it is necessary to create the necessary tools, as well as investments in prevention.
"I think the phenomenon of disinformation should be addressed on two levels. First, we need to provide the police and security services with the necessary tools to counter disinformation and fake news. We need to exchange good practices and learn from a technological point of view. Second , we must invest in prevention. It is important that citizens, especially young people, realize that not all the information and news they see on the computer screen and promoted by algorithms is true, so we must educate our citizens to be aware of online misinformation," Verlinden said. /BGNES