After more than a decade of waiting, frustration and dashed hopes, Romania and Bulgaria have finally received the green light to join the passport-free Schengen area—partially for now.
The signatories of a political agreement with Austria on Wednesday night in Vienna were Romanian Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu, Bulgarian counterpart Kalin Stoyanov and Austria’s interior minister, Gerhard Karner. A year ago, Vienna blocked both countries.
In Bucharest, many sought to claim credit for the diplomatic victory that came after a year of intensive work to convince European partners that Austrian objections were unjustified.
In reality, the hard work was done by Romania’s and Bulgaria’s interior ministries which agreed to tighter border security measures to placate Vienna and convince EU members that the countries deserved to be members. Predoiu’s ministry cited EU border agency Frontex data showing illegal migrants were mainly entering the EU from the Western Balkans, not Romania as had been claimed.
The European Commission which conducted investigations agreed. It said that Romania and Bulgaria, which are on major routes for illegal arms trade and drug and human trafficking, had nonetheless met all Schengen requirements.
According to the agreement, Romania and Bulgaria will become the 28th and 29th members of Europe’s open-borders Schengen area in March 2024, but only by air and sea.
Although only a partial admission to the coveted club, talks are set to continue next year about land borders with the aim of full membership by the end of 2024.
Romanian Senate speaker Nicolae Ciuca called the decision “historic” and Romania’s top achievement after NATO entry in 2004 and joining the EU in 2007.
What a different picture from a year ago when Austria opposed letting Romania and Bulgaria join at a meeting of EU interior ministers, claiming illegal immigration was still too high and more work needed to be done to prevent it.
Romania disagreed and temporarily recalled its ambassador and imposed economic sanctions.
However, this time, there was celebration in Bucharest.
Mr Ciuca praised the “the joint efforts” of Romanian President, Klaus Iohannis, Interior Minister Predoiu, Foreign Minister Luminita Odobescu had yielded the political agreement.
“It is a real success,” he wrote on Facebook. “We will continue our efforts for admission with land borders, for road and rail traffic and for obtaining full membership in the Schengen Area,” he wrote.
“We will continue negotiations at diplomatic level and work at technical level to achieve this country project essential for Romania’s future,” he said. Romania formally applied to join Schengen in 2011.
After Romania and Bulgaria agreed to beef up border security and and won backing from all the other EU states, Austria softened its position and proposed entry in stages, a solution Austria’s Interior Minister referred to as „Air Schengen.”
Predoiu’s ministry thanked both the European Commission and the Spanish Presidency of the Council of the European Union as well as the Interior Ministries in Vienna and Sofia for the „constructive talks” that ultimately made this agreement possible.”
Austria holds parliamentary election due next year.
Joining Europe’s open-borders area would boost economic growth by easing travel and freight transport from the country to the rest of the continent.
The Schengen area currently includes 27 European countries with around 400 million citizens. These include 23 EU countries and Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
