It’s official: after thirteen years of waiting, Bulgaria and Romania entered the Schengen area, this vast European zone of free movement, at midnight local time (11 p.m. in Paris).
The land borders of the two countries are however not affected. Controls on the roads are therefore maintained, the fault of the veto of Austria, the only refractory country in the European Union (EU), for fear of an influx of asylum seekers.
Despite this partial membership, therefore limited to airports and seaports, the stage has a strong symbolic value. “This is a great success for both countries”declared the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, in a press release. “This is a historic moment for the Schengen area, the largest area of free movement in the world. Together we are building a stronger and more united Europe for all our citizens”she said.
The Romanian Minister of Justice, Alina Gorghiu, is convinced that this normalization will attract investors and facilitate the country’s prosperity. “Romania’s attractiveness is strengthened and in the long term, this will encourage an increase in tourism”she said on Saturday during a conference.
Twenty-nine members
At Bucharest airport, where the majority of flights serve the Schengen area, teams have been busy all week preparing for this little revolution. With the promise of increased staffing levels to carry out unannounced checks, particularly on minors “in order to prevent them from falling prey to human trafficking networks”, according to the government. The deployed agents will also be there to “guide passengers and identify those who would take advantage of this to leave Romania illegally”.
Because we have to show our credentials to hope to overcome Vienna’s reluctance. And become full members of the Schengen area, within which more than 400 million people can travel freely, without permanent controls at internal borders.
Croatia, although it entered the EU after Romania (19 million inhabitants) and Bulgaria (6.5 million), members since 2007, beat them to the punch in January 2023. With this double entry, this zone created in 1985 will now include twenty-nine members: twenty-five of the twenty-seven EU states as well as their associated neighbors Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland.
An “irreversible process”
Excluded from the process, road carriers are not taking off. The wait lasts “from eight to four o’clock” on the border with Hungary, “from twenty to thirty hours with Bulgaria, with peaks at three days” in both cases, deplored in a press release one of the main Romanian unions in the sector, deploring “financial losses” colossal. “We have waited thirteen years, we are at the end”reacts the secretary general, Radu Dinescu.
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The anger is identical among the Bulgarian bosses. “Only 3% of Bulgarian goods are transported by air and sea, the remaining 97% travels by land”says Vassil Velev, president of the BICA (Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association) organization, interviewed by Agence France-Presse. “We are therefore at 3% in Schengen and do not know when we will be authorized to join completely”he laments.
Although he hopes for progress by the end of the year, the entrepreneur fears he will pay the price for the legislative elections scheduled for the end of September in Austria, while conservative Chancellor Karl Nehammer must face the rise in the polls of the extreme right.
In any case, both Sofia and Bucharest have warned: there will be no going back. “It is clear that this process is irreversible”declared the Romanian Minister of the Interior, Catalin Predoiu, at the beginning of March, calling for it to be completed in 2024.