Erweiterung des Schengenraums: Bulgarien and Rumänien can be extended

The time has come: the first item on the agenda of the last meeting of EU Home Affairs ministers on Thursday around 10 a.m. is the decision to expand the border control-free Schengen area to include Bulgaria and Romania. As Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) explained on Monday evening, Austria wants to give up its blockade and vote yes. All other EU countries have already given their approval.

One of the biggest advantages of the EU is the ability to travel freely within the community. The basis for this freedom of travel is the so-called Schengen Agreement, which currently involves 23 of the 27 EU countries and also some non-EU countries. Not every EU member is automatically a Schengen member. The Schengen area is not entirely free from border controls: due to the many arrivals of refugees and migrants, temporary border controls have been reintroduced at several interstate borders in recent years and have been repeatedly expanded. Austria had justified its veto against Schengen expansion with high asylum numbers.

Significant improvement in the migration situation

According to figures from the Ministry of the Interior, the migration situation has improved significantly. There has been a 40 percent decrease in the number of irregular border crossings into the EU and a sharp decrease in migration on the Balkan route, by minus 80 percent. Bulgaria (minus 47 percent) and Romania (minus 53 percent) also saw a decrease compared to the same period last year in unauthorized entries. “Austria has triumphed with tough but constructive EU policies to make our country and the European Union more secure,” Karner explained.

The European Commission has been calling on Austria for some time to abandon the blockade. Since his appointment, Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner has been advocating for the full integration of Romania and Bulgaria, contrary to the then Viennese government line. Even on the Dutch side, despite the new right-wing populist government, no return to the previous blockade attitude is expected. The previous government had agreed to the full Schengen accession of Romania and Bulgaria last year; the current one will probably adhere to it.

A first step was taken with “Air Schengen”: at the end of March, border controls at the air and sea borders with Bulgaria and Romania were abolished. Another followed in November: the interior ministers of Austria, Romania and Bulgaria, as well as Hungary, agreed in Budapest on a new border protection package to set the course for Schengen accession of the two Balkan countries in January. Then, at the end of November, EU ambassadors “completed the preparation of the Council decision to lift land border controls with Bulgaria and Romania from 1 January 2025,” ultimately paving the way for Thursday’s vote.

One hundred border guards at the Bulgarian-Turkish border

However, not all borders will be completely abolished: the Budapest border protection package provides for the countries participating in Budapest to send a joint contingent of 100 border guards to the Bulgarian-Turkish border. Moreover, according to Karner, internal border controls will continue for a certain period between Bulgaria and Romania, as well as between Hungary and Romania. If the protection of the EU’s external borders is not as robust as it should be, such compensatory measures are necessary, the Minister of the Interior said.

This article has been automatically translated, read the original article here.