Applicants for Romanian citizenship re-opt for Bulgarian passports

Sofia offers Bulgarian passports to tens of thousands of foreign citizens from countries which are not EU members, which will allow them to work in the West when Bulgaria will join the united Europe, the Romanian press writes, cited by Info-Prim Neo. According to the cited source, the procedure of issuing Bulgarian citizenship allows the corrupt officials to offer passports to persons from countries outside EU in exchange for EUR 300, which gives these persons the chance to work in the EU after Bulgaria’s adhering. Over 20 000 citizens from countries like Moldova or Macedonia already obtained Bulgarian citizenship in the past few years and other 55 000 are already on the waiting list. The Bucharest press writes that this system was created by the Government from Sofia “in order to strengthen the relations with Bulgarian ethnics from neighbor countries, as Gagauzes of Moldova”. “Sunday Telegraph” writes that it discovered many applicants who do not know Bulgarian and do not know anything about the country. Most of them are motivated by the perspective of finding a workplace in the EU, the cited source writes. The owner of an unofficial agency which intermediates passports’ issuance revealed that he can obtain the necessary documents for 99% of his clients for only EUR 130. Those who solicit Bulgarian citizenship need only a birth certificate, a declaration that they have Bulgarian origins and that they have no record. The agency can obtain forged declaration of residence in Bulgaria as well. Supplementary costs include the medical certificate issued illegally, without any consultation, including for HIV test. The whole process lasts about a year, but in exchange for an “emergency” tax it can be finished in several months. For Muslims it is more difficult and the tax could amount to EUR 10 000. According to “The Telegraph”, the traffic with citizenship is not practiced in Romania. On the contrary, Romania imposes drastic measures for offering citizenship, so that many Moldovan residents redirect their applications to Bulgarian authorities. The head of the British Institute MigrationWatch, Andrew Green, declared that on the background of UK’s concerns regarding the potential migration of Romanians and Bulgarians after January 1, 2007, that the procedures related to entering the territory of Great Britain depend on the efficiency of issuing passports in other European countries. “This is an additional proof against opening the British labor market to the citizens of Romania and Bulgaria, if the decision will not be simultaneously made by all the EU member countries” Green says. The British Minister of Internal Affairs, John Reid, examines concrete methods of restricting the access of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens on the labor market of UK, “Sunday Times” informs. Other members of the UK Government, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Margaret Beckett or the Minister for Europe, Geoff Hoon, oppose to restricting access to Romanians and Bulgarians. The Government from London estimates that about 60-140.000 Romanians and Bulgarians could come to the Kingdom after the two countries will join the EU, phenomenon which could make supplementary pressures over the educational, medical or dwellings offering system.