The EU says it will welcome Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area, the largest area of free movement in the world.
In a press release, it that from March 2024, there will be no longer controls at air and sea borders. Lifting land border controls will be discussed and decided on later in the year. This will allow people and businesses to benefit from their rights to free movement by air and sea, entering or leaving Bulgaria and Romania, the Monday statement said.
The Commission first confirmed that both countries were ready to become part of the Schengen area in 2011, four years after they joined the EU.
Since then, Bulgaria and Romania have continued to demonstrate that they fulfil the conditions for becoming Schengen members, and experts reconfirmed in 2022 and 2023 that they were ready to become members– only Austria blocked their membership.
The statement said that “security, police and judicial cooperation measures have been introduced in these two countries to ensure that the EU remains strong against security threats.”
This ninth enlargement of the Schengen area, which will take the number of members to 29, will “boost travel, trade and tourism and will strengthen the internal market. ”
The border-free Schengen area guarantees free movement to almost to 450 million EU citizens, along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU.
Free movement of persons means every EU citizen can travel, work and live in an EU country without special formalities. The Schengen area underpins this freedom by allowing citizens to move around the Schengen area without any border checks.
Romania and Bulgaria win partial entry to Schengen after 13 year wait
