From January 1, 2025, Romania and Bulgaria will finally be part of the Schengen area. An interminable wait of fourteen years ended with the lifting of Austria's veto.
“It's the biggest hit of 2024”, affirmed Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu in his wishes. Since 2011, Romania and Bulgaria have applied to access the Schengen Area: a zone of free movement between 25 of the 27 members of the European Union as well as their associated neighbors which are Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and the Liechtenstein. The two Eastern European countries will therefore join this zone from the start of 2025, according to Le Parisien. According to analyst Valentin Naumescu, this decision removes “the feeling of being second-class citizens.”
As a reminder, they had already completed half of the process with the lifting of controls in March 2024 at airports and seaports. Then in mid-December, the Europeans authorized the same privileges at land border crossings. An action which was finally possible thanks to the lifting of Austria's veto in the spring of 2024. Vienna had accepted a partial entry of Sofia and Bucharest and, even, established a road map for possible expansion, facilitating accession thereafter. . The country feared an influx of asylum seekers with the expansion of space. The measures recently put in place on this point satisfied him and enabled this unblocking.
A reinforced system
To begin the system, an agreement provides for “an initial period of six months, in order to minimize the potential change in migratory routes.” Since Bulgaria becomes the border country of Turkey, which does not belong to it, the Bulgarian-Turkish border will intensify.
Entry into the zone is good news for the Romanians and Bulgarians. According to estimates, this could help boost gross domestic product by at least 1%.
published on January 1 at 8:50 a.m., Sébastien Salpietro, 6Medias
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