(ANSA-AFP) - SOFIA, 31 MAR - Bulgaria and Romania joined
Europe's vast Schengen area of free movement on Sunday, opening
up travel by air and sea without border checks after a 13-year
wait. A veto by Austria however means the new status will not
apply to land routes, after Vienna expressed concerns over a
potential influx of asylum seekers. Despite the partial
membership, the lifting of controls at the two countries' air
and sea borders is of significant symbolic value.
"I travel often and this really eases things", Kristina
Markova, 35, said as she readied to fly out of the Sofia airport
on Sunday morning. "We got to the terminal in less than three
minutes, including baggage check," she said. "It's a real
improvement". Admission to Schengen is an "important milestone"
for Bulgaria and Romania, symbolising a "question of dignity, of
belonging to the European Union", according to foreign policy
analyst Stefan Popescu. "Any Romanian who had to walk down a
lane separate from other European citizens felt being treated
differently," he told AFP.
"This is a great success for both countries, and a historic
moment for the Schengen area -- the largest area of free
movement in the world," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a
statement Saturday. "Together, we are building a stronger, more
united Europe for all our citizens."
- And they were 29 -
With Bulgaria and Romania, the Schengen zone now comprises 29
members -- 25 of the 27 European Union member states as well as
Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. Romania's
government said Schengen rules would apply to four sea ports and
17 airports, with the Otopeni airport near the capital Bucharest
serving as the biggest hub for Schengen flights. More staff
including border police and immigration officers will be
deployed to airports to "support passengers and detect those who
want to take advantage to leave Romania illegally", it added.
Random checks will also be carried out to catch people with
false documents and to combat human trafficking. Bulgaria and
Romania both hope to fully integrate into Schengen by the end of
the year, but Austria has so far relented only on air and sea
routes. Croatia, which joined the EU after Romania and Bulgaria,
beat them to becoming Schengen's 27th member in January 2023.
Created in 1985, the Schengen area allows more than 400 million
people to travel freely without internal border controls.
- 'Irreversible process' -
While some have reason to celebrate, truck drivers, faced
with endless queues at the borders with their European
neighbours, feel left out. One of Romania's main road transport
unions the UNTRR has called for "urgent measures" to get full
Schengen integration, deploring the huge financial losses caused
by the long waits. "Romanian hauliers have lost billions of
euros every year, just because of long waiting times at
borders," secretary general Radu Dinescu said. According to the
union, truckers usually wait eight to 16 hours at the border
with Hungary, and from 20 to 30 hours at the Bulgarian border,
with peaks of three days. Bulgarian businesses have also voiced
their anger over the slow progress. "Only three percent of
Bulgarian goods are transported by air and sea, the remaining 97
percent by land," said Vasil Velev, president of the Bulgarian
Industrial Capital Association (BICA).
"So we're at three percent in Schengen and we don't know when
we'll be there with the other 97 percent," he told AFP.
Bucharest and Sofia have both said there will be no going back.
"There is no doubt that this process is irreversible," Romanian
Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu said this month, adding it
"must be completed by 2024 with the extension to land borders".
ani-vs-anb/jj/js-yad/bp
/ (ANSA-AFP).
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