Bulgaria and Romania are finally full Schengen members
14 December 2024
"Schengen, Schengen, will I cross Schengen?", sang a Bulgarian pop-folk star in 2000. Back then, Bulgaria and Romania weren't even members of the European Union. Although they joined the Union a few years later, the Schengen question stuck with them for over two decades.
This week, EU interior ministers agreed on the full membership of the two countries in the free-travel zone, starting January 2025. The partial integration of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen zone started in March with lifting air and maritime controls. However, Austria's reservations about how migrants through the Western Balkan route were handled delayed the land access for a few more months.
 | Gabriela Belichovska This new situation means faster travel within the EU internal borders for 25 million Europeans living in the two countries. Tourists from Bulgaria will no longer spend hours waiting at the border to reach the Greek seaside in summer. The same goes for Romanians heading to Hungary. But the tough times and the kilometres-long queues for lorry drivers are not over. In the first months, Hungary will keep the border checks for every truck at the busy Nadlac border crossing. On top of that, spontaneous checks will be made in the first six months at the Bulgaria-Romania border. The interim government in Sofia calculates the financial benefits of full Schengen membership to be over €800 million annually. |
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