Bulgaria and Romania will fully join the Schengen area from 1 January, after being touted with Schengen membership for years and undergoing a trial period of partial inclusion.
Today, the Council of the European Union officially agreed to the lift of land borders between the two countries and the rest of the border control free zone. From January, checks on persons at the internal land borders with and between Bulgaria and Romania will be removed.
“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. This step will benefit not only Bulgarian and Romanian citizens, but also the EU as a whole”, said Sándor Pintér, Hungarian Minister for Home Affairs.
Léon Gloden, interior minister of Luxembourg, home to the small town of Schengen where the free movement deal was signed in 1985, welcomed the step ahead of the formal approval. Luxembourg has always supported the full membership of Bulgaria and Romania,” he told the Financial Times. “It’s also an important membership in the view of protecting the exterior frontiers of Schengen.”
This is important for all of us, European citizens and businesses. Together we will reap the benefits of a stronger and more connected Union.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission
1. Background
Bulgaria and Romania both joined the EU in 2007 and the European Commission established in 2011 that the two countries meet the necessary requirements to be allowed to fully join Schengen. In 2022, amid discussions over Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia’s joining the area, the Commission re-issued a call on the Council, asking to it to “take the necessary decision to allow [the three countries] to become full Schengen Members.”
While Croatia only joined the EU in 2013, it became a full Schengen Member in 2023, with all land border checks lifted on 1 January and air border checks lifted in March, given the need for this to coincide with the dates of IATA’s summer/winter time schedule.
In the meantime, Bulgaria and Romania’s ascension had been vetoed by The Netherlands for several years and, most recently, by Austria, over worries the two countries would not sufficiently protect the Schengen area’s borders from migrants.
In December 2023, after pressures from the Romanian government on Austrian energy company OMV’s gas drilling project in the Black Sea, a partial agreement was reached. In an unprecedented move in the history of Schengen expansion, Bulgaria and Romania were allowed to partly join the area, with controls only lifted at air and sea borders, prompting the creation of a new term – “air Schengen”.
2. Schengen, but still controls
Today’s news are not entirely a surprise. During a meeting in Budapest on 22 November, Austrian minister of home affairs promised to lift the country’s veto and signed an agreement with the interior ministers of Bulgaria and Romania, which the Hungarian presidency of the Council called a “milestone [that] sets the stage for the next step: the Council decision on the full accession of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen.”
A condition on the agreement is for border controls to keep being in place between Romania and Hungary and Bulgaria and Romania, despite the full integration to Schengen. “To mitigate the potential change of migratory patterns that may arise as an immediate consequence of the absence of internal borders, continue conducting internal border controls by introducing border controls in accordance with Art. 25a (4) and (5) of the Schengen Borders Code at land borders between Hungary and Romania and Romania and Bulgaria for an initial period of at least six months to prevent any serious threat to public policy or internal security”, the agreement reads.
With the period of mandatory checks still in place vaguely mentioned as “at least six months”, there is no certainty of when exactly the Schengen integration will actually take effect in practice, not just on paper.
Meanwhile, over the past few years Austria has unilaterally re-introduced land border controls with Hungary, Slovenia and Italy. And, over the past month, France and the Netherlands have followed suit, reintroducing controls with their neighbours. Albeit targeted rather than systematic, this increasingly observed move towards closing down rather than opening up, has prompted worries that Schengen might be disappearing.
“I do not accept that again barriers will be set up in the minds of our people,” Gloden added, arguing that these measures undermine “trust” and “faith” in European values and principles.
