Bulgaria and Romania are on track to become full members of the Schengen area

Romania and Bulgaria can fully join the European Schengen area with open borders from January 2025. The penultimate step towards free travel by land for Bulgarians was taken today in the Hungarian capital Budapest. The key meeting of the interior ministers of Bulgaria, Romania and Austria was held there, hosted by their Hungarian counterpart Sándor Pinter, Dir.bg recalls.

Hungary holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union, and Austria is the country that has so far been preventing our land accession.

"Today we have seen for ourselves that Bulgaria and Romania have made a lot of efforts to gain Schengen membership by land. The negotiations were very difficult, because we had to discuss many problematic issues and find a common result," said the Hungarian Interior Minister.

The final decision on Bulgaria's entry into Schengen by land will, however, be taken on December 12 by the EU Council of Interior Ministers, Acting Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev told journalists at the Kulata border checkpoint, and pointed out that Sofia and Bucharest received the applause of European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, who also attended the talks in Budapest.

"So far, things are going according to plan. The progress of Bulgaria and Romania in the fight against illegal migration was reported. But here we must emphasize that the efforts are not only of Bulgaria and Romania, but also of our partners from the European Union, with whom we have jointly achieved this result. Let me not forget the efforts of Turkey, which helps us a lot in this regard in the fight against illegal migration," Glavchev pointed out and explained that attempts to cross by illegal migrants have decreased by 70 percent.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán commented that Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary and Austria have agreed to "work tirelessly" for Romania and Bulgaria to join the Schengen area and with land borders from January 1, 2025.

A little later, the four countries - Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary and Austria, issued a joint declaration. It was published on the official profile of the Hungarian EU presidency on the social platform "X".

The document states that today, 22 November 2024, the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU, Romania, Bulgaria and Austria have recognised the progress made in reducing irregular migration to Europe and to the countries in question and have agreed to:

- do everything in their power to prevent the illegal one-way passage of migrants through their territories and to smoothly implement the return and transfer processes under the relevant agreements in a spirit of solidarity; continue to support Bulgaria in protecting the EU's external land borders with Turkey with the deployment of an international police contingent of 100 border guards (15 from Austria, 25 from Bulgaria, 20 from Hungary and 40 from Romania).

In conclusion, the parties have agreed to start the necessary steps by the end of this year to adopt the formal decision of the EU Council setting a date for the lifting of checks at the internal borders of the EU with Bulgaria and Romania and at the border between the two countries.

Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner acknowledged in Budapest that Bulgaria and Romania are making a significant contribution to the security of the Schengen area and have not allowed changes in the security environment since the lifting of air and sea border controls.

EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson highly appreciated the agreement reached and expressed confidence that the Council decision would be adopted in December. She reiterated that Bulgaria and Romania have long fulfilled all the criteria and, in some areas, even go beyond the measures applied by other Schengen member states.

"I welcome the positive results of today's informal talks in Budapest," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on the "X" social network and was categorical:

"Bulgaria and Romania belong in Schengen."

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola also welcomed the agreement and noted that MEPs have long been calling for Bulgaria and Romania to fully join Schengen. I expect a final decision in the coming days, Metsola added.

The two largest groups in the European Parliament - the European People's Party (EPP) and the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) - expressed satisfaction with today's decisions on Schengen, announced after the meeting of the interior ministers of Bulgaria, Romania, Austria and Hungary in Budapest.

GERB leader Boyko Borissov also welcomed the expected decision on the full membership of Bulgaria and Romania in Schengen. He thanked the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán and Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer for giving Bulgaria the green light for Schengen.

However, the news of the agreement reached caused a negative reaction from the MEP from the Austrian Freedom Party Petra Steger, according to whom without a functioning external border and a drastic reduction in illegal migration there is no need to discuss the expansion of the Schengen area for free movement.