Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has promised support for Bulgaria's aspirations to join the Schengen Agreement.

Tusk and Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov gave a news conference in Varna after the latter welcomed the former at the Evksinograd (Euxinograd) residence on the Black Sea coast Wednesday night for tete-a-tete talks. Bulgaria hopes to join the Schengen Area in March 2011.

"Bulgaria has the image of a country which is working to develop in all spheres," Tusk stated remarking also on the "decisiveness of the Bulgarian government to cope with corruption and organized crime."

He explicitly pointed out that "the diplomatic relations between Poland and Bulgaria are on a very high level," with his meeting with Borisov contributing further to them.

In his words, Bulgaria is on a fast track to Schengen, and Poland will help it in that project since it has recently gone through the same process.

The other major point for which Tusk has promised Polish backing is Bulgaria's plan to ask the EU for funding for the long-forsaken Hemus Highway connecting Sofia and Varna through the northern part of the country, which is also the only major highway project in Northern Bulgaria.

The Borisov Cabinet is hoping to get EU funding for the Hemus Highway, or at least for some of its sections, from some of the operational programs of the EU. The major challenge is presenting the project as part of a transnational corridor which would justify the spending of EU funds on it.

"Poland's support for Bulgaria's Schengen accession and for the Hemus Highway is very important because next year Poland will take over the rotating EU Presidency," Bulgaria's PM said.

"Unfortunately, the Bulgarian state budget will not have money for the Hemus Highway in the next ten years," Borisov said on Thursday.

"We talked about natural gas, nuclear, and infrastructure projects with Polish PM Tusk," he also mentioned.

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