Slovenia backs Bulgaria's future membership in the Schengen zone, the President of Slovenia, Danilo Turk, stated.

Tukr met Monday, in the capital Ljubljana, with his Bulgarian counterpart, Georgi Parvanov, who is on an official visit to Slovenia.

The Slovenian President further pointed out the criteria for joining Schengen must be the same for all countries, voicing hope the European Commission will give a positive assessment to Bulgaria.

Parvanov expressed gratitude for the support, declaring he expected that political factors would not play a role in this assessment.

"Regarding fight against corruption, the cabinet of Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, made initial strong efforts, undertook concrete measures, but there is a lot that still need to be done," according to the Bulgarian President.

Parvanov was adamant none of the above should interfere with the Schengen issue since Bulgaria had fulfilled all requirement s of its EU partners regarding the Zone.

The two further discussed the advancement of the project for the Russian gas pipeline South Stream and its importance. Slovenia proposed to organize a conference on the subject.

On other energy topics, Turk said his country would not give up on their Nuclear Power Plant, NPP, while Parvanov pointed out stress-test will show Bulgaria's Kozloduy NPP is safe and the project to build a second one in the Danube town of Belene must go on.