Bulgaria and Romania will join the Schengen Area in January, the European Council announced.
The European Council confirmed the removal of land border controls with Bulgaria and Romania next month, granting them full Schengen Area membership. This follows an 18-year wait after their EU accession in 2007, a delay attributed to concerns about illegal immigration.
Land border checks between these countries and other Schengen states—specifically, between Bulgaria and Greece, and Romania and Hungary—will end on January 1st, the Council declared in a Thursday statement, hailing it as a “historic moment.”
The Hungarian presidency of the EU stated that this move will benefit both Bulgarian and Romanian citizens, as well as the EU as a whole.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu affirmed that Schengen membership was a strategic goal for Romania, and that the country would continue to act responsibly to protect and strengthen the EU’s external borders to manage illegal migration.
Both NATO members, Bulgaria and Romania faced delayed Schengen accession due to unresolved issues, including corruption, and a pause during the 2015 European refugee crisis. Austria blocked their entry in 2022, citing concerns over the number of refugees entering Austria via the Western Balkans route.
Reuters noted that these Balkan nations are key transit points for illegal arms, drugs, and human trafficking.
Austria agreed in March to partial Schengen admission, lifting air and sea border controls, but maintaining land border restrictions.
Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner stated in November that significant improvements in border protection had been achieved, leading to a massive drop in illegal migrant arrivals via Romania and Bulgaria.
The European Council’s December 10th decision confirmed that both countries met the requirements for full Schengen accession.
Established in 1985, the Schengen Area is the world’s largest area without internal border controls, encompassing 29 members: 25 of the 27 EU member states, plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.
Recent headlines featured Romania’s Constitutional Court annulling the first round of its presidential election due to irregularities and allegations of Russian interference in the campaign of independent candidate Calin Georgescu, a critic of NATO and the EU. Moscow denied these claims.
A rerun of the first round will be held at a later date.