Bulgaria and Romania will become full Schengen members in spring 2025.
It seems that things have been finalised in Brussels and Vienna: Austria is giving up its veto and opening the way for the two countries, reports the Austrian edition of the Courier.
For some, the refusal to extend the Schengen area was a necessary measure to protect Austria, for others a political manoeuvre to score points ahead of the national elections.
In any case, blocking Romania and Bulgaria for Schengen did not bring Austria any international friends. Even high-ranking European Christian Democrats, that is, party friends of the Austrian People's Party (ÖVP), have openly expressed their dissatisfaction with Austria's position on this issue.
On the margins of a meeting to be held in Budapest on 22 November, to which Hungary has been invited as EU President, the Austrian Minister for the Interior, Gerhard Karner, will meet his counterparts from Sofia and Bucharest. On the sidelines of this meeting, a package of measures is to be adopted which the two countries will have to implement in order to finally become members of Schengen. This is expected to happen in the spring of 2025. | BGNES