Bulgaria and Romania joined Europe’s vast Schengen free movement zone on Sunday, opening air and sea travel without border checks after a 13-year wait.
However, a veto from Austria means the new regime will not apply to overland routes, after Vienna raised concerns about a possible influx of asylum seekers.
Despite the partial accession, the lifting of controls on the air and sea borders of the two countries has significant symbolic value.
Entry into Schengen is an “important milestone” for Bulgaria and Romania, symbolizing a “loss of dignity, belonging to the European Union”, according to foreign policy analyst Stefan Popescu.
“Every Romanian who had to walk in a lane separate from other European citizens felt they were treated differently,” he told AFP.
Ivan Petrov, a 35-year-old Bulgarian marketing executive living in France, said he was excited about less stressful travel and the time he could save.
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“This is a great success for both countries and a historic moment for the Schengen area — the largest free movement area in the world,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on Saturday.
“Together, we are building a stronger, more united Europe for all our citizens.”
And it was 29
With the accession of Bulgaria and Romania on Sunday, the Schengen zone will include 29 members — 25 of the 27 European Union member states plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Romania’s government said Schengen rules would apply at four seaports and 17 airports, with the country’s Otopeni airport near the capital Bucharest serving as the biggest hub for Schengen flights.
More staff, including border police and immigration officers, will be deployed at airports to “support passengers and identify those who want to take advantage to leave Romania illegally,” he added.
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Random checks will also be carried out to catch people with fake documents and to combat human trafficking.
Bulgaria and Romania hope to be fully integrated into Schengen by the end of the year, but Austria has so far only relented on air and sea routes.
Croatia, which joined the EU after Romania and Bulgaria, beat them to become the 27th Schengen member in January 2023.
The Schengen area, created in 1985, allows more than 400 million people to travel freely without internal border controls.
“Irreversible Process”
While some have reason to celebrate, lorry drivers, faced with endless queues at the borders with their European neighbours, feel left out.
Earlier this month, one of Romania’s main road transport unions, the UNTRR, called for “urgent measures” to fully integrate Schengen, lamenting the huge financial losses caused by the long waits.
“Romanian carriers have lost billions of euros every year just because of long waiting times at the border,” said general secretary Radu Dinescu.
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According to the union, truckers typically wait eight to 16 hours at the Hungarian border and 20 to 30 hours at the Bulgarian border, with peaks of three days.
Bulgarian businesses also expressed their anger at the slow progress.
“Only 3 percent of Bulgarian goods are transported by air and sea, the remaining 97 percent by land,” said Vasil Velev, president of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA).
“So we are at 3 percent in Schengen and we don’t know when we will be there with the other 97 percent,” he told AFP.
Bucharest and Sofia both said there would be no return.
“There is no doubt that this process is irreversible,” Romanian Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu said this month, adding that it “must be completed by 2024 with the extension to land borders.”
Source: AFP