(ANSA-AFP) - BUCHAREST, 28 DIC - Romania and Bulgaria have
reached an agreement with Austria to join the European Schengen
area of free movement by sea and air in March 2024, the Romanian
government said Wednesday.
"After 13 years, Romania is finally going to join Schengen!
We have a political agreement on this," Romanian Prime Minister
Marcel Ciolacu wrote on Facebook. The Romanian interior ministry
said in a statement that a "political agreement" had been
reached between the three countries on extending the zone "to
the air and sea borders" of Romania and Bulgaria "from March
2024". The question of the opening of land borders has been
postponed until discussions to be held next year. Austria, which
vetoed the entry of the two countries a year ago, put forward
the idea of what it called "Air Schengen" at the beginning of
December. It said it was prepared to relax the rules governing
air traffic for Bulgaria and Romania if Brussels strengthened
the EU's external borders.
Romania and Bulgaria, both members of the EU since 2007, were
rejected at the end of 2022 from the vast zone within which more
than 400 million people can travel freely without internal
border controls. Their applications were vetoed by Austria,
which has been complaining for years that it has to put up with
a disproportionate amount of illegal immigration as a result of
poorly protected external Schengen borders. (vpc-bg/roc/mca/cwl)
(ANSA-AFP).
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