Bulgaria can join the Schengen Agreement in 2010 or the beginning of 2011 at the earliest, Foreign Minister Ivailo Kalfin said.

Kalfin made the statement at a meeting with the Confederation of Employers and Industrialists in Bulgaria on September 19 2007, Focus news agency reported.

Schengen Agreement accession would result only from strenuous work and a lot of investment, Kalfin said.

Bulgaria’s European integration was not over. The county would be integrated after it joins the Schengen Agreement and the euro zone and after the end the European Commission monitoring mechanism on Bulgaria’s Judiciary.

Kalfin also said that the 10th anniversary of the Monetary Fund in Bulgaria was an example of its “beneficial usage.”