If Croatia is delighted with this decision, Bulgaria and Romania will have to wait longer to hope to enter the Schengen area. On Thursday, all European interior ministers meeting in Brussels validated Croatia’s application for membership of this area without internal border controls. From January 1, 2023, this small country will become the 27th member of this vast area and will also join the euro zone.
As for Bulgaria and Romania, the news is quite different. Following Austria’s veto, these two Eastern European countries will not be able to enter the Schengen area.
The decision must be unanimous
Membership, which must be decided unanimously by the Member States, would in particular have the effect of eliminating the long queues of vehicles at the borders of these countries and of encouraging tourism.
“I will vote today against the enlargement of Schengen to Romania and Bulgaria,” Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner announced. Austria is currently facing a sharp increase in asylum applications, fearing that the lifting of border controls with these two countries will further increase the arrival of migrants. “This year, we have recorded more than 100,000 illegal border crossings into Austria,” he said.
On the French side, the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin was in favor of the integration of Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen and considered that this would make it possible “to better respect the control of our borders” and to limit arrivals by Balkan route. These three countries have “made a lot of effort to control their borders”, estimated Gérald Darmanin, on the same line as his German counterpart Nancy Faeser.
As a reminder, the Schengen area is an area in Europe within which more than 400 million people can travel freely, without internal border controls.