Since March of this year, controls for Bulgarians and Romanians at the air and sea borders of the Schengen area have been lifted. Now the land borders will also be control-free. The two countries can fully join the Schengen area in 2025. The interior ministers of the 27 EU states decided this on Thursday in Brussels.
The Schengen area allows people to travel across national borders in Europe without being checked at the borders. A total of 29 countries are included, including EU member states such as Germany and France, but also non-EU countries such as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Romania and Bulgaria have been EU members since 2007.
Austria had long resisted the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area – out of fear that many migrants could immigrate to the Alpine republic via these countries. This is different now.
Among other things, stronger external border protection now ensures that migrants are no longer waved through, it was said. “The numbers speak for themselves,” said Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. Before the Schengen veto, 70,000 illegal border crossings from Romania and Bulgaria were registered, now there are 4,000 this year. “Without this veto, this massive reduction in illegal border crossings would not have been successful,” the minister further argued.
#decides #expand #Schengen #include #Bulgaria #Romania
