YEREVAN, DECEMBER 2, ARTSAKHPRESS. If Bulgaria does not receive the resources it has asked from the European Commission (EC), the Interior Ministry’s budget should be raised to cover the requested increase by 1,260 of the Border Police staff, caretaker Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev said in Parliament’s plenary hall on Friday. The staff increase seeks to mitigate the work overload in the Border Police and end the practice of having to post employees from all of the Ministry’s structures to the border areas to deal with the migratory pressure.
The Interior Ministry has redirected as much money as possible and some aid has been received from the EC, but the European Commission has refused to provide resources for the construction of another type of deterrence installation along the border, because the EC has already provided funding once. However, the EC is ready to finance another type of activities, Demerdzhiev told the MPs.
The existing fence along the border with Turkey is extremely unreliable and technical solutions are being sought but that requires time and financial resources, he also said.
Demerdzhiev said that police have been provided with a new type of spike strips that can safety stop vehicles going at high speed.
The Interior Minister told the National Assembly that on Thursday the Ambassador of Austria to Bulgaria conducted a detailed inspection along the border and will report the positive findings to the Austrian government.
(This information is published based on the cooperation agreement between ARMENPRESS and BTA).
