Bulgaria and Romania, after 13 years of waiting, finally enter Schengen, France Press notes in an analytical material.
The two countries officially enter this large free movement zone tomorrow, the agency writes. However, AFP recalls that there is one significant exception to this entry, and that is land border control, which will be maintained much to the chagrin of drivers.
The reason for this exception is a veto imposed by Austria, the only EU member state to object, driven by fears of an influx of asylum seekers.
But despite this partial accession to Schengen by air and by sea, this stage has a strong symbolic meaning, notes AFP.
“It’s a matter of dignity,” said Stefan Popescu, an international relations expert based in Bucharest. “Each Romanian, when he had to stand in a separate line from other EU citizens, felt that he was treated differently,” he added to AFP. The expert adds that this accession to Schengen will further favor EU integration and adds that this is an important stage, even though it is happening late.
Thirty-five-year-old Bulgarian Ivan Petrov, who works in the marketing sector in France, also defines entering Schengen by air and sea as a step forward, saving unnecessary time wastage and less stressful travel in the future.
The AFP article also describes how Bucharest airport staff are preparing for Romania’s accession to air Schengen. At this airport, most flights come from the Schengen area. Airport crews have been preparing all week for this little revolution that will take place tomorrow. It is added that it is envisaged to strengthen the personnel who will carry out checks on a random basis, in particular on minors, in order to avoid human trafficking. The officers stationed at the airport will be there both to guide passengers and to identify those who may try to leave Romania illegally.
Because the two Balkan countries must show that they can be counted on in the hope that Austria’s objections will fall away and they will become full members of the Schengen area, where more than 400 million people can travel freely, without internal border checks , says France Press.
The article recalls that Croatia, which entered the EU after Romania and Bulgaria, which have been EU members since 2007, preceded them in entering Schengen, joining this area in January 2023.
With the entry of Bulgaria and Romania, the Schengen area, created in 1985, will now have 29 members – 25 of the 27 EU member states and its neighbors – Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Excluded from this process, however, drivers in the international road transport sector are not hiding their anger.
The wait lasts from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the border with Hungary and from 8 p.m. to 30 p.m. with Bulgaria, with peaks of a three-day wait in both cases, according to a communique from one of the main Romanian trade unions in the industry. The statement also talks about colossal financial losses. “We have been patient for 13 years, our patience is running out,” warns the general secretary of the National Union of Road Transporters from Romania, Radu Dinescu.
France Press notes that there is the same dissatisfaction on the part of Bulgarian employers in the industry. “Only 3 percent of Bulgarian goods are sent by air and sea, and the remaining 97 percent move by land,” Vasil Velev, chairman of the Association of Industrial Capital in Bulgaria (AIKB), told AFP. “Therefore, we are at 3 percent in Schengen and we do not know on which date we will receive permission for full accession,” he added. Vasil Velev expects progress by the end of the year, but fears the consequences of the parliamentary elections scheduled for the end of September in Austria, at a time when conservative Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer must deal with the growing popularity of the far right, according to opinion polls .
But in any case, both Sofia and Bucharest see tomorrow’s stage of accession to Schengen as an irreversible process. “It is clear that this is an irreversible process,” Romanian Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu said at the beginning of March and called for the completion of this process in 2024, writes AFP in its analytical material entitled “Bulgaria and Romania with one foot in Schengen”.
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