The Schengen area has two new members: Bulgaria and Romania. This eliminates the need for regular border controls when entering the country. For now, this only applies to airports and ports. Anyone traveling by car or train will continue to be checked.
Bulgaria and Romania have partially joined the European Schengen area without border controls. On Sunday at midnight (local time, Saturday evening 11 p.m. CET), entry controls at airports and ports were initially abolished.
At the land borders with Romania and Bulgaria, however, identification documents will continue to be checked for the time being. This affects car travelers and truck drivers who drive to one of these two countries via Hungary or Greece.
At the end of December, the EU states agreed on the partial accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area. Austria in particular is blocking the abolition of controls at land borders. The government in Vienna justifies this with the high number of irregular entries via the Balkan route.
The Schengen area now includes all EU member states except Ireland and Cyprus. There are also Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. There are normally no border controls within the Schengen area – except in special threat situations.
Although all of Germany’s neighboring states belong to the Schnegen area, Germany repeatedly has controls carried out at some borders. “This is necessary to stop the unscrupulous business of smugglers and to limit irregular migration,” said Interior Minister Nancy Faeser. Border controls in the Schengen area must be approved by the EU Commission.