The European Parliament calls on member states to allow Romania and Bulgaria to join the Schengen area without delay.

In the resolution adopted on Tuesday, MEPs state that by the end of 2022, the Council must take all necessary measures to decide on the admission of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area of ​​free movement. This should ensure the abolition of checks on people at all internal borders of both member states in the first half of 2023, the European Parliament said in a statement.

The resolution was adopted with 547 votes “for”, 49 “against” and 43 “abstentions”.

Noting that the Schengen area is “one of the greatest achievements of the European Union”, MEPs criticized the fact that member states have still not decided on the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, although the two countries have long fulfilled the necessary conditions. . According to the members of the European Parliament, control at the internal border is discriminatory and negatively affects the lives of mobile workers and citizens. Blocking imports, exports and the free movement of goods from ports also harms the EU’s single market.

Currently, all EU countries, except Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania, are part of the Schengen zone. This also includes non-EU countries (Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein). MEPs have repeatedly called for Bulgaria and Romania to be fully admitted to the Schengen area, for example in the 2018 resolution on the subject, in the 2020 resolution on the situation in the Schengen area in the context of the pandemic, and in the 2021 report. on the functioning space of free movement. Today’s resolution concludes the plenary debate on 5 October 2022.

The accession of new countries to the Schengen area requires a unanimous decision of the EU Council.

The Czech Presidency of the Council stated that it intends to hold discussions on this topic by the end of 2022.

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