BUCHAREST/SOFIA -- Romania and Bulgaria have reached an agreement with Austria to join Europe's open-borders Schengen Area by air and sea from March 2024, with talks set to continue next year about land borders.
The Schengen zone comprises 27 European countries -- 23 EU member states plus non-EU members Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, and Switzerland -- that have officially abolished passports and other types of border control at their common borders. Four EU members -- Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Ireland -- are not part of Schengen.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu welcomed the partial entry agreement. "From March, Romanians will benefit from Schengen advantages on air and sea routes," he said. "I am convinced that in 2024 we will finish negotiations for land borders as well."
"After long, complicated negotiations, we reached an agreement in principle with Austria on the admission of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen Area, initially for air and sea borders," Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov confirmed on December 28.
Austria opposed expanding the passport-free Schengen zone to Romania and Bulgaria at a meeting of European Union interior ministers a year ago, saying illegal immigration was still too high and that the two countries needed to do more to prevent it before joining. Austria had no objections to Croatia joining Schengen.
After they agreed tighter border security measures and won backing from other EU states, Austria partially relented, proposing entry in stages, a solution Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner referred to as "Air Schengen."
However, the partial entry is unlikely to calm public opinion in the two southeastern European EU members, since the bulk of foreign travel, including personal and truck transportation, is done through land borders.
Romanian officials also argued that Bucharest had met the technical criteria for border protection in 2011 and that Austria's opposition is meant to appease public opinion back home.
Millions of Romanians and Bulgarians work in Western Europe and many of them travel by car to and from their home countries for holidays. They face hours-long waiting times at the borders with Schengen countries, while trucks can spend days before being allowed to cross.
Austria's opposition sparked a public backlash last year in Romania, where there were calls to boycott Austrian businesses, such as Raiffaisenbank and OMV gas stations.