15/12/23 (Agence Europe) – Spain’s Prime Minister, Pedro Sánchez, said at the end of the European Council on Friday 15 December that his country would still “really like to reach an agreement before the end of the year on enlarging the Schengen area to include Romania and Bulgaria”, noting that the Romanian community is one of the largest in Spain. The Bulgarian Prime Minister, Nikolai Denkov, and the Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, had met with the Austrian Chancellor, Karl Nehammer, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, late into the night to discuss the future of the countries’ ambitions regarding the Schengen area. According to Mr Denkov, they discussed the need to open land borders and airspace, while Austria indicated earlier this week that it would lift its veto on the integration of Romanian and Bulgarian airports into Schengen. (SP)