Romania and Bulgaria have reached an agreement with Austria to join the European Schengen area for free movement by sea and air in March 2024, the Romanian government announced, quoted by AFP. "After 13 years, Romania will finally join Schengen! We have a political agreement for this," Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Colaku wrote on Facebook.
The Romanian government said a "political agreement" had been reached between the three countries to extend the area "to the air and sea borders" of Romania and Bulgaria "from March 2024." The question of opening the land borders has been postponed until the discussions that will take place next year.
Austria, which a year ago vetoed the entry of both countries, in early December presented the idea of what it called "Air Schengen". She said she was ready to relax rules governing air traffic for Bulgaria and Romania if Brussels strengthened the EU's external borders. Romania and Bulgaria, both EU members since 2007, were kicked out at the end of 2022 from the vast zone, within which more than 400 million people can travel freely without internal border controls. Their applications were vetoed by Austria, which has complained for years that it has to put up with a disproportionate amount of illegal immigration as a result of poorly secured external Schengen borders. The Schengen area was established in 1985 and includes 23 of the 27 EU member states, as well as their associated neighbors Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. /BGNES
