AFTER over a decade of waiting, Romania and Bulgaria will become the Schengen Area’s 28th and 29th members.
This means that border controls are abolished when travelling to the countries from within the Schengen Area by air or sea effective March 31, allowing travellers to enter the countries without showing ID at the border.
However, the admission is only partial.
Due to concerns over the Eastern European countries’ handling of immigration, Austria vetoed their full ascension to the world’s largest free-travel zone, with border checks for land crossings to remain in place for the foreseeable future.
This means travellers coming from Spain or other Schengen countries will still have to go through passport control when travelling to the countries by car, bus, or train, but not via plane or boat.
It also means Romania and Bulgaria will now count towards British traveller’s 90 in a 180 day limit.
The Schengen Area was established in 1995 and includes 25 of the 27 EU member-states — all but Cyprus and Ireland — plus Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.
More than 400 million people live in the zone, and as many as 1.7 million live in a country different from where they work.
Bulgaria and Romania joined the European Union in 2007, but have faced a long road towards full Schengen ascension.
In 2022, the European Commission ruled that both countries met the criteria to join the Schengen Area, but were halted by Austria due to immigration concerns, as irregular immigrants enter the country via the popular Balkan route through Bulgaria.
Croatia, which joined the EU in 2013, was the previous Schengen addition, receiving full status in 2022.
The Netherlands also questioned Bulgaria’s and Romania’s entries in 2022, with Prime Minister Mark Rutte alleging at the time that border officers in Bulgaria accepted cash bribes.
However, a 2023 EU fact-finding mission found that actions taken by Bulgarian border officials led to a 30% decrease in illegal crossings at the Bulgarian-Turkish border in 2023, and a 21% increase in apprehended illegal entries since 2022.
Though the move will benefit the tourist economy, in Romania, the real economic benefits won’t come until land borders are opened.
According to Eurostat data, the country’s waterways carry 19.8% of freight transport, while roads carry 39.3%.
Romanian media has reported that long wait times for trucks at the border amount to as much as €2.4 billion in losses per year.
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