România and Bulgaria, partial access to Schengen
Starting March 2024, Romania will be partially admitted to the Schengen area, only by air and sea.
Mihai Pelin, 28.12.2023, 14:00
Austria has accepted that Romania and Bulgaria join the Schengen area with its naval and air borders, in March next year. No definite date has been set for the opening of land borders as well, but negotiations continue. The Romanian Ministry of the Interior informs that it has reached a political agreement together with its counterparts from Austria and Bulgaria. The parties have also agreed to discuss next year the application of the Schengen treaty to the land borders in close connection with the compensatory measures regarding the strengthening of border control.
The leaders of the ruling parties in Romania were quick to welcome the announcement. The Social-Democratic Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu wrote on social media that, after 13 years, Romania will finally join Schengen. From March next year, Romanians will benefit from the advantages of the area of free movement by air and sea. Implicitly, the port of Constanţa (southeast) will increase its importance exponentially, says the prime minister.
The Liberal leader Nicolae Ciucă has stated that the partial accession to the Schengen area is a real success, and the authorities will continue their efforts for joining by land and railway too. On the other hand, from the opposition, the Save Romania Union believes that the ruling coalition is selling Romanians a defeat for a victory. Romania deserves to be in Schengen with full rights, and the Government and President Klaus Iohannis had the obligation to continue the negotiations for full accession, the party spokesperson, deputy Ionuţ Moşteanu, has stressed.
For many years, Romania has met all the technical criteria for the inclusion in the area of free movement of people and goods. At the end of last year, there was no unanimous decision regarding Romania’s and Bulgaria’s joining the Schengen area, members of the EU since 2007, after Austria and the Netherlands opposed it in the Justice and Home Affairs Council. Vienna motivated the refusal citing the fact that Romania would be part of the Balkan route of illegal migration, an accusation rejected by the Bucharest administration and officially dismantled by the European institutions. For its part, the Netherlands then said that it supported the entry of Romania, but not Bulgaria, the two being analyzed together.
Currently, the accession of the two depended only on Austria’s vote, after the Netherlands decided not to oppose Bulgaria a week ago. The Schengen area is one of the most important achievements of the European project. It started in 1985 as an intergovernmental project between five EU countries – France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg – and has gradually expanded to become the largest free movement area in the world. It currently covers over 4 million square kilometers with a population of nearly 420 million people and includes 27 countries. Schengen brings significant economic benefits to all citizens and businesses in the participating states. It is estimated that Europeans make 1.25 billion trips within it every year, which also brings considerable benefits to tourism and the cultural sector. (MI)
