Austria has confirmed the agreement with Romania and Bulgaria regarding “Air Schengen”, which allows entry by air without border control, reports Der Standard.

The Interior Ministry confirmed on Saturday that the legally binding document had been sent to EU president Spain on Friday evening.

“Air Schengen means that passengers arriving from Romania and Bulgaria will no longer go through passport control, apart from the control of the airline at the boarding gate,” Austria’s Interior Ministry, led by Gerhard Karner, told AFP.

The implementation of this regulation is subject to approval by all EU member states. The earliest this could happen is March 2024, as the flight schedule will change that month.

UPDATE 23:02 “Today, December 30, 2023, at 10:38 p.m., the EU Council adopted a Decision on the application of the Schengen acquis in Romania and Bulgaria. According to the decision of the EU Council, the Schengen acquis will apply to Romania’s air and sea borders from March 2024,” the Romanian Ministry of the Interior said in a press release on Saturday evening.

According to the cited document, according to the decision of the Council of the EU, during 2024, “the Council will make efforts to adopt a decision on the abolition of controls at the land border.” “The decision of the Council of the EU provides for a number of measures to strengthen border control and combat illegal migration, as well as the application of the Dublin Regulation. Romania is already applying the above-mentioned measures as early as 2023. The decision of the Council of the EU does not contain any new obligations for Romania,” the MAI also reported.

There are no negotiations for full membership

The Ministry of Internal Affairs emphasized that currently Current negotiations are NOT ongoing for the full accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area, and the date of this approach has not been set.

Three conditions of Vienna

The agreement was accompanied by three conditions put forward by Austria. They include:

• increasing the deployment of the EU border protection agency Frontex in Romania and Bulgaria
• allocation by the European Commission of funds for the protection of the external borders of these countries
• strengthening of land border controls and reception of asylum seekers from Austria, especially from Afghanistan and Syria, Romania and Bulgaria.

On December 8, 2022, Austria blocked the extension of the Schengen zone to Romania and Bulgaria, citing an increase in the number of asylum seekers. The Netherlands was also against Bulgaria’s accession to Schengen.

Marcel Cholaku Photo: Inquam Photos / George Kalin

Cholaku insists on joining the Schengen zone

“After the 23rd of this year and this month, Romania also has a political agreement with Austria to join the maritime Schengen zone, where we are very interested in the development of Constanta and the air port. First of all, we must prepare for next year, I think that under the Hungarian presidency we must complete Romania’s full accession to the Schengen zone,” said Prime Minister Marcel Colacu on Thursday evening on Romanian television, News.ro reported. . .

He repeated the idea that in 13 years Romania has fulfilled all the technical requirements for joining the Schengen zone.

“For the first time, we have a political agreement on partial accession. That is, from this moment on, the whole process is irreversible,” the prime minister also said.

He noted that there will no longer be a JAI Council to decide on Romania’s accession to the maritime and air Schengen area: “I don’t think there will be a JAI Council anymore, there will be a vote of representatives of each state. and this procedure will be carried out, considering that there are still 2 days until the new year (…) At the moment, the documents are with the lawyers of the Commission and the Austrian government for the final form, which will be submitted to all EU representatives.”

Read also:

• How the Austrian political class reacted to Romania’s partial accession to the Schengen Agreement
• Çolaku responds to criticism of partial entry into Schengen: This is the first concrete result in 13 years / Many expressed their opinion, but achieved very little