France has highlighted Bulgaria's efforts to join the Schengen Agreement, but has urged the country to expand them, the French Foreign Ministry announced.

After a meeting between French and Bulgarian Foreign Ministers, Alain Juppe and Nikolay Mladenov, the spokesperson of the French Foreign Ministry, Bernard Valero, stated that his country believes that Bulgaria should enter the Schengen Agreement, but when it fulfills the requirements.

"The measures taken by Bulgaria deserve to be highlightened, but they of course have to be extended," Valero said.

France and Germany have opposed Bulgaria's entry to the Schengen Agreement because of insufficient efforts against organized crime, border control and corruption.

"Today we must respond impartially and transparently within the European Council on this unprecedented situation where we have to take into account the deficiencies in the mechanism for cooperation and verification of the European Commission," Valero said.

Bulgaria was originally supposed to join Schengen together with Romania in March 2011. However, its failure to meet some border control criteria, and the political opposition of France and Germany – backed to date by Sweden and Austria, among others – has left the hopes of the two Balkan states to make it into Schengen up in the air. Bulgaria and Romania now hope to be able to join the borderless zone before the end of 2011.

In February, Sandor Pinter, Hungarian Minister of Interior, observing Bulgaria's Schengen fitness as Hungary holds the rotating EU Presidency, announced that EU experts will examine again Bulgaria and Romania's Schengen preparedness in late April or early May.

According to the last report of the Working Party for Schengen Matters, Bulgaria has covered the Schengen Accession criteria as far as the implementation of the Information System and the Supplementary Information Request at the National Entry ( SIS/SIRENE) is concerned, but it has to put additional efforts into dealing with its Turkish border.