Romania and Bulgaria have reached an agreement with Austria to join the European Schengen zone of open borders by air and sea from March 2024, and talks on land borders will continue next year, the Romanian Ministry of the Interior announced today.
Austria opposed the extension of the Schengen area to Romania and Bulgaria at a meeting of EU interior ministers a year ago, arguing that illegal immigration was still too high and the two countries needed to do more to prevent it before joining.
After agreeing on stricter border security measures and gaining the support of other European Union states, Austria partially relented, proposing a phased entry.
Romania and Bulgaria are on the main routes for illegal trafficking in arms, drugs and people, but the European Commission said that a detailed investigation showed that they met all Schengen conditions.
Bucharest has previously said that Vienna’s opposition is unjustified, citing data from the European Union’s border agency Frontex, which show that illegal migrants mostly enter the EU from the Balkans, not from Romania.
