Romania, Bulgaria conclude emergency co-operation agreement

The national governments of Romania and Bulgaria on Friday signed an agreement on emergency co-operation designed to contribute to the development of bilateral relations in the field of prevention, preparedness and response in case of major emergencies, natural disasters technological and fire, according to Romania's Interior Ministry (MAI).

"The agreement governs technical principles and ways of action in forecasting, preventing, assessing, containing and removing the effects of emergencies in line with the relevant requirements and recommendations for international co-operation," MAI reported on Friday.

Interior Minister Carmen Dan welcomed her Bulgarian counterpart Mladen Marinov on Friday on the side-lines of the 5th meeting of the Romania-Bulgaria High-Level Co-operation Council.

"The talks were particularly fruitful and addressed common themes of interest in coordinating pending European files, securing the common border and, implicitly, the EU's external border, preventing and combatting illegal migration, as well as police co-operation."

The two sides reiterated their commitment to further coordinating efforts to bring Romania and Bulgaria to the border-free Schengen area.