Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter convenes a meeting Thursday of the EU Home Affairs Ministers Council in Brussels at which ministers agreed to grant Romania and Bulgaria full membership of the Schengen free travel area from January 1, 18 years after they joined the European Union. Photo by Olivier Hoslet/EPA-EFE
Dec. 12 (UPI) — Romania and Bulgaria will become full members of the Schengen Area that allows free movement of 420 million people between 29 mostly European Union countries without border checks at the start of 2025, the EU said Thursday.
The move, set to take effect Jan. 1, came after EU ministers agreed to lift the final remaining land border crossing restrictions with and between Bulgaria and Romania nine months after they officially joined in the Schengen Area in March, the European Council announced in a press release.
Romania and Bulgaria applied parts of the Schengen legal framework, including those relating to external border controls, police cooperation and the use of the Schengen Information System since joining the 27 member-country bloc in 2007.
Checks on travelers at internal air and sea borders ended in March, however, land borders that were kept in place due to concerns from Austria and other neighbors that the two countries were not doing enough to stop illegal migrants from outside the EU, using them as gateways to the rest of the EU, had remained in place until Thursday’s decision.
The breakthrough was hailed by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who simply said in a post on X superimposed onto the Romanian and Bulgarian national flags: “Fully in Schengen — where you belong.”
Hungary, which holds the presidency of the EU called it a landmark step.
“It is a historic moment to finally welcome Bulgaria and Romania as full Schengen members. Lifting checks on persons at the internal land borders with and between those member states has been a top priority for the Hungarian presidency, and today we have made it a reality,” said Hungarian interior minister Sandor Pinter.
“This step will benefit not only Bulgarian and Romanian citizens, but also the EU as a whole.”
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said full membership would provide a major economic boost and “faster journeys home for millions of Romanians” of living and working in the Schengen Area.
Thanking EU institutions and member states for their support and trust, President Klaus Iohannis said in post on X that full accession would also “strengthen EU security and unity.”
“Today’s decision is a recognition of our years-long efforts and progress achieved. RO assures that we will continue to act fully responsible for protecting and strengthening EU’s external borders,” Iohanniss said.
The lifting of restrictions should theoretically cut down road travel time wasted at border crossings by hours, particularly for commercial trucks, with the Romanian Road Haulers’ Association telling the BBC that delays that can run to five days cost the industry an estimated $20 billion between 2012 and 2023.
Trucks crossing into Hungary on main Romania-Hungary border crossing at Nadlac face another six months of physical and documentation checks while Bulgaria has erected an electronic barrier at the main crossing on the route to Bucharest, charging trucks $26 to pass.
The Romanian trucking association said the main issue was bottlenecks caused by all checks and inspections — weighing, permits, health and environmental and searches for illegal migrants — being carried out at the Romanian border instead of at dedicated staging areas well away from crossing points as they were in the rest of the Schengen zone.
