Bulgaria and Romania partially joined EU’s visa-free Schengen zone on Sunday, opening up travel by air and sea without border controls after a 13-year wait.
The Schengen area, created in 1985 to allow more than 400 million people to travel freely without internal border controls, now welcomes Bulgaria and Romania into its fold. With the accession of Bulgaria and Romania on Sunday, the Schengen zone will have 29 members – 25 of the 27 European Union member states, plus Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
This is a great success for both countries, and a historic moment for the Schengen area – the largest area of free movement in the world, EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said.
Despite partial membership because of Austria’s veto over a potential influx of asylum seekers, the removal of controls at the two countries’ air and sea borders has important symbolic significance.
Foreign policy analyst Stefan Popescu says admission to Schengen is an “important milestone” for and Romania, symbolising a “question of dignity, of belonging to the European Union.”
The Romanian government said Schengen rules will apply to four seaports and 17 airports, with Otopeni airport near the capital Bucharest serving as the largest hub for Schengen flights. Random checks will also be carried out to identify people with false documents and combat human trafficking.
Despite everyone’s celebration and sense of success, truck drivers facing endless queues at borders with their European neighbours are feeling left out.
Earlier this month, one of Romania’s main road transport unions, UNTRR, called for “urgent measures” to fully integrate into the Schengen zone, lamenting the huge financial losses caused by the long wait. According to the union, truckers typically wait between eight and 16 hours at the Hungarian border and between 20 and 30 hours at the Bulgarian border, with peak times of three days. Bulgarian businesses have also expressed their dissatisfaction with the slow progress.
“Only three per cent of Bulgarian goods are transported by air and sea, the remaining 97 per cent by land,” said Vasil Velev, president of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA).
Bulgaria and Romania hope to be fully integrated into Schengen by the end of the year.
