This Sunday, March 31, Romania and Bulgaria, members of the European Union since 2007, become part of the Schengen area of free movement of people and goods. Although they do so only partially, by air and sea, while people and goods will continue to encounter controls at road border crossings. A partial victory for Bucharest and Sofia, stopped by Vienna.
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Long years of negotiations have only managed to overthrow controls at airports and ports, but those considered the most important for both Romania and Bulgaria, those on roads, are still in place.
Both countries celebrate a partial victory this Sunday, March 31. These two members of the European Union (EU) since 2007 are finally also members of the Schengen area, a block of 27 countries (now 29) that eliminated border controls between them for the free movement of people and goods.
The Schengen area is made up of 25 States of the 27 of the European Union, in addition to Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. In practice, this space functions as a single country: upon arrival at its borders, citizens belonging to one of these States do not have to present a passport and can enter the neighboring nation with only their identity document.
However, these regulations, which apply in this way for the other members of the Schengen area, will be partially applied to Bulgaria and Romania: Free movement will only operate at air and sea borders, that is, in airports and ports, but not on roads, where the largest number of citizens and goods enter or leave.. This is why the measure is perceived as a half-victory for Sofia and Bucharest.
Economic gains lower than what Romania and Bulgaria expect
For now, the main advantage of the measure will be for travelers arriving or departing from the 18 airports in Romania or the four in Bulgaria.
However, the true economic impact is expected when land borders are liberalized, since 39.3% of Romania's freight transport occurs by road – according to Eurostat – while for Bulgaria this figure increases to 91%. -towards the European Union-, according to trade associations cited by the AFP news agency.
In the Romanian case, the economy could take a significant leap by removing land controls, especially since it has important trading partners in the EU. One of them is Germany, which imports about 23.6 billion euros from its eastern neighbor, and exports about 20 billion, or Italy, with whom mutual exchange fluctuates around 20 billion.
For the Romanian Government, the value that the country loses due to the long border verification processes with its community partners is 0.5% of the country's GDP. With the withdrawal of controls, it hopes to solve this million-dollar loss, as well as encourage tourism to its territory.
While the first flights are already beginning to release travel restrictions and ports are relaxing their controls, on the border between Bulgaria and Romania the long lines of trucks continue as usual. There drivers spend long hours, sometimes days, waiting to cross into Western Europe to drop off their goods.
“It takes at least 7-8 hours to cross this border,” says Anton Antonov, a Bulgarian driver.
“Schengen by air does not make my life any easier,” says Gediminas Gostautas, another truck driver who sometimes has to wait an hour or an hour and a half to move one meter in the long line.
Austria, the red light for Schengen
The reason why both countries have not managed to fully enter Schengen is that Austria opposes their entry, considering that they do not have sufficient control over their external borders to delimit immigration. They fear that with their entry, asylum demands among space countries will increase.
Negotiations on full entry will continue during this year 2024, which is expected to be complicated in this matter, since both the European Union and Austria have elections.
In Austria, the stance towards full entry could be especially difficult, at a time when the extreme right is seen as a favorite for the legislative elections in October.
With AFP and EFE
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