From January 1, Bulgaria and Romania will fully integrate the Shengen area, after partial entry at the end of last March. A novelty that reshuffles certain cards for entrants and their new community.
It took ten months for the Schengen borders to completely fall for Bulgaria and Romania. The maritime and air borders of the space of the same name fell on March 31, after 12 years of negotiations. The land borders must disappear this Wednesday, January 1, between the two countries and the signatories of the Schengen agreements.
In detail, the Council of the European Union approved on December 12 full access to the Schengen area for Bulgaria and Romania, two states that have already been members of the Twenty-seven since 2007.
What this decision will change
Concretely, from January 1, 2025, Bulgarian and Romanian citizens will be able to cross without control, and by land, the borders with neighboring Hungary or Greece, recalls the government website Public Life. The same goes for citizens of countries signatory to the agreements. According to AFP, now more than 400 million people can in principle travel without being subject to checks.
According to a press release from the European Commission, this historic change should “stimulate travel, trade and tourism and strengthen the internal market”. For the President of the European Commission, Ursula Van der Leyen, “this is a major step forward for these two countries and for the Schengen area” which will allow the Schengen community to become even stronger, in the interest of all citizens of the Union.”
This full membership of Romania and Bulgaria was made possible by the lifting of Austria's veto in March 2024. The Alpine country deplored an influx of asylum seekers which would worsen in the event of a land enlargement of Schengen , but he believes that the measures put in place in recent months have allowed “a massive reduction in crossings”.
A “historic decision”
It is the end of a long wait for the two former communist countries, among the poorest in the EU. They have met the technical criteria since 2011 but “each time, member states raised objections,” recalls analyst Valentin Naumescu relayed by AFP.
On both sides, leaders welcomed “a historic decision”, stressing that it was a “key objective” “since their entry into the EU” in 2007. Created in 1985, the Schengen area now includes 25 of the 27 EU member countries as well as their associated neighbors Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
