His remarks were made during the General Debates of the 78th meeting of the United Nations General Assembly, according to EU Helpers.

The chief of state urged Nikolai Denkov, the Bulgarian prime minister, to travel to Austria as soon as possible. In order to increase the visibility of Bulgaria, he urged Denkov to extend an invitation to Austrian Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer and emphasized that he is in constant communication with the President.

The Cooperation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) for Bulgaria and Romania, which was established in 2007 upon the accession of these two Balkan nations to the bloc as a transitional measure to ease progress in the areas of judicial reform and anti-corruption, was shut down by the European Commission on September 15.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Union, welcomed the judgment and emphasized that all EU Member States can now continue working within the annual rule of law cycle.

However, Austria and the Netherlands blocked Bulgaria's entry into the EU's passport-free zone in December of last year due to worries over undocumented immigrants, dashed the aspirations of Bulgarian nationals who had been waiting more than ten years for this procedure to be completed.

All EU nations must ratify the Schengen Zone's creation in order for it to exist. Nevertheless, despite expectations that Bulgaria would join the Schengen Area as its newest member, Austrian officials continue to oppose the move.

Austria's attitude has not changed, according to the Ministry of the Interior, which further emphasized that there is no purpose in expanding the Schengen system as long as it is not functioning.

Additionally, the Ministry stated that there is still a significant demand on immigration, which is a clear indication, in the eyes of Austrian authorities, that external border protection does not function.