The European Commission welcomes today's unanimous decision (editor's note: On December 30, 2023, late in the evening) by the Council to accede Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area, starting with the abolition of air and sea border checks from March 2024. The accession of these countries will boost travel, trade and tourism and will further strengthen the domestic market. Discussions on a further decision to abolish land border checks will continue in 2024.
An enlarged Schengen area will make the European Union stronger, both internally and globally.
President Von der Leyen stated: Today is a historic moment for Bulgaria and Romania. As well as a day of great pride for Romanian and Bulgarian citizens. From the month of March, they will be able to freely cross the internal sea and air borders without being subjected to border checks. This is a very big step forward both for the two countries and for the Schengen area as a whole. Congratulations to Bulgaria and Romania: this huge achievement is possible thanks to your hard work, dedication and persistence. Thanks to you, the Schengen area will become even stronger for the benefit of all EU citizens.
Bulgaria and Romania are ready to join the Schengen area. In 2011, the Commission confirmed for the first time that both Bulgaria and Romania are ready to become part of the Schengen area without internal border checks. Since then, Bulgaria and Romania continue to prove that they fulfill the conditions for becoming a member of the Schengen area. This was reaffirmed by three fact-finding missions carried out at the Bulgarian and Romanian external borders in 2022 and 2023. The Commission also launched pilot projects with Romania and Bulgaria in March 2023 to strengthen the management of external borders, strengthened cooperation with neighboring countries and ensured fast asylum and return procedures.
The Schengen area is also ready to welcome Bulgaria and Romania. Over the past decade, the EU has worked to strengthen the architecture that protects the space without internal border checks. A range of security and police and judicial cooperation measures have been introduced to ensure that the EU remains strong in the face of security threats. The Schengen area is now also supported by a new governance model, a new evaluation mechanism and an annual reporting and monitoring cycle. Thanks to the joint efforts made in recent years, the Schengen area is stronger and more sustainable.
This ninth enlargement of the Schengen area both confirms and strengthens mutual trust and unity between Member States - elements on which the area is based - and will contribute to progress on this extremely important project. It will make the Union stronger through stronger protection of our common external borders and effective police cooperation, more prosperous by eliminating time-wasting waiting at borders and facilitating people-to-business contacts, and more attractive through significant enlargement of the world's largest shared space without internal border controls.
Discussions on a date for the eventual removal of checks on persons at internal land borders will continue in 2024, with a Council decision on this expected in due course.
To help Bulgaria and Romania protect the Union's external borders, significant financial support and assistance will continue to be provided by the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex). At the same time, the pilot projects on the external borders developed by Bulgaria and Romania have proven to be effective and should be transformed into more structural arrangements. Europe's Schengen area of free movement is one of its greatest achievements, and one that EU citizens value most. What began as an intergovernmental project between five member states in 1985 — France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg — gradually grew through seven stages of enlargement to become what is today the largest area of free movement in the world. Today, the benefits of eliminating internal borders are as compelling as they were in 1985.
The Schengen area consists of 27 countries, its area is over 4 million square kilometers and its population is almost 420 million. With Romania and Bulgaria, the Schengen area will grow to 4.5 million square kilometers with a population of 450 million.
The Schengen area is an integral part of the EU legal framework. According to the Treaties, all EU member states must become, when ready, full members of the Schengen Area. It is both a right and an obligation. Both Bulgaria and Romania have proven to have excellent results in terms of implementation. With Romania and Bulgaria, the Schengen area becomes even stronger. Voluntary fact-finding missions conducted in 2022 in Bulgaria and Romania and the latest mission conducted in 2023 in Bulgaria only strengthened their readiness. /BGNES
