The Austrian Interior Minister, Gerhard Karner, has announced his country no longer opposes Romania and Bulgaria\u2019s accession to Schengen with their ground borders. A decision in this respect is expected at the meeting of the European Interior and Justice Ministers in Brussels this week, where in order to be adopted, it will have to be voted unanimously by the EU members.<\/p>\n
Austria opposed Schengen expansion two years ago in spite of the European Commission recommendations arguing that the EU\u2019s external border wasn\u2019t well-protected against illegal migration by these two countries.<\/p>\n
Gerhard Karner explained that Austria\u2019s requests on fighting illegal migration have brought down the number of immigrants close to the Hungarian border, the most preferred entrance route to his country.<\/p>\n
This massive reduction in illegal migration wouldn\u2019t have become visible had we not opposed until now \u2013 the Vienna official went on to say. We saw 70 thousand interceptions until October last year alone and only 4 thousand in the same period this year, Minister Karner said adding that it wasn\u2019t sure whether those illegal migrants had made it to Austria via Romania.<\/p>\n
In December 2023, the EU Council decided to accept in its borders-free area Romania and Bulgaria, two EU members since 2007. However, these two countries\u2019 accession was only partial in March 2024, and only those travelling by air or by sea were exempted from passport checking. The Foreign Ministers of Austria, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council have recently agreed over a new measure package on border security.<\/p>\n
Under the document signed in Budapest, even after the two countries\u2019 ground accession, a transition period of 6 months will follow when checking is to continue at the two countries\u2019 borders, a condition imposed by Austria. However, the checking is no longer needed at the Greek-Bulgarian border.<\/p>\n
Romania had witnessed several Schengen assessment reports before 2011, the first assumed term for joining the zone. Along the years countries like France, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, Finland, the Netherlands or Austria opposed Romania\u2019s accession invoking issues such as corruption, organized crime, legal and migration reforms.<\/p>\n
In May 2022, the European Commission reiterated the recommendation that Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia be admitted to the Schengen zone. The last, an EU member since 2013, joined on January 1 2023, both the border-free area and the Eurozone, whereas Romania and Bulgaria had to wait.<\/p>\n
In October 2024, the European Parliament endorsed a new resolution, the fourth of this kind since 2011 \u2013 calling for the immediate accession of Bulgaria and Romania. Schengen is the world\u2019s largest free-movement area covering 4 million square kilometers with a population of 420 million people and includes 27 countries.<\/p>\n
(bill)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Austrian Interior Minister, Gerhard Karner, has announced his country no longer opposes Romania and Bulgaria\u2019s accession to Schengen with their ground borders. A decision in this respect is expected at the meeting of the European Interior and Justice Ministers in Brussels this week, where in order to be adopted, it will have to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":705947,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[37738],"tags":[29153,29174,159847,116464,28976],"coauthors":[113311],"class_list":["post-841416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-today-in-the-news","tag-austria","tag-bulgaria","tag-gerhard-karner-en","tag-romania-en","tag-schengen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n