Four members of the European Parliament from Romania, Bulgaria and Greece are asking the Greek Minister of Immigration to propose at an informal meeting of the JAI Council the abolition of controls at the land border of the Schengen Agreement between the three countries. The initiative comes as Romania and Bulgaria have been given the green light for air and sea-only Schengen integration since March, without setting a deadline for land-based accession.

The joint letter was signed by Romanian MEPs Dacian Cholos and Vlad Gheorghe, as well as Greek MEP Georgios Kyrtsos and Bulgarian Daniel Lorer.

Four MEPs also provide arguments in support of their proposal, including the support of the European Commission and the European Parliament for the full accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen area.

Arguments of four MEPs:

• “Firstly, since 2011, the European Commission has systematically repeated that Bulgaria and Romania are ready for full entry into Schengen.
• Second, the European Parliament published numerous resolutions and reports calling for full accession to the Schengen area, which were supported by an absolute majority of the House.
• Thirdly, representatives of the Greek tourism sector and HORECA are asking for the abolition of land border controls to facilitate the arrival of Romanian and Bulgarian tourists to Greece. This will be a very important factor for economic development, especially in the northern parts of Greece, provided that the land border is fully open by the summer period.
• Fourth, the current land border controls between the three countries that are officially part of the Schengen area still cause huge losses to transport companies and tourists in terms of travel costs, lost financial benefits and time. This is a factor that we cannot underestimate in the conditions of economic crisis and unprecedented inflation.
• Fifth, raising the border will immediately improve the environmental parameters of the respective territories, thus contributing to the EU’s goal of reducing CO2 emissions, air pollution and related diseases,” says the joint letter of the elected representatives of the three countries.

Also, four MEPs and parliamentarians believe that “quick and decisive implementation of the proposal will increase the existing mutual trust between the three member states and increase the effectiveness of their cooperation within the EU.”

“This proposal meets the needs of the citizens, and our responsibility is to overcome the difficulties and provide the citizens of our countries with maximum benefits based on good neighborly relations,” they also say, according to the press release.

Austria still does not want Romania and Bulgaria in Schengen at all

Austria still does not want Romania and Bulgaria in Schengen at all. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said in late 2023 that integration with airports and the navy was a “step forward” but that “it would be wrong” at this point to give the green light to land borders as well.

“It would be wrong at this stage. Land border control is still necessary. It is not only about Romania and Bulgaria. The entire migration system is in disarray. I’m not the one who scores Romania and Bulgaria. I am committed to the functioning of the system at the European level. And this will be only if the external border is protected. It is also an important part of the new pact on asylum and migration which the EU has agreed and which we must now implement. Only then can there be full freedom of movement in the EU again,” Karner said in an interview with Die Presse.

Partial integration from March 31

At the end of December, the EU Council announced that Romania and Bulgaria will join Schengen with an air and sea border on March 31, 2024.

The authorities in Bucharest tried during the December negotiation offensive to introduce a specific date for the abolition of land border controls, but all they got was the promise of negotiations. The year-end declaration signed by the three countries, attached to the EU Council’s communication, mentions a “commitment to discuss in 2024 a date for the possible abolition of land border controls”. This, however, is subject to 5 measures leading to a “significant improvement of the migration situation in Austria”, additional measures that have not been applied in the case of any other Schengen acceding country.

Still depends on Austria, decisions are taken unanimously. Actually, this is also stated in the decision of the Council of the EU, published in the Official Journal of the Union: “The Council is making efforts to decide on the abolition of controls on people at the internal land borders. The relevant decision is taken by the Council unanimously in accordance with paragraph (2) of Article 4 of the Act of Accession of the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania from 2005.”

What can be the probable date of land integration, and most importantly, of Romania to Schengen? At this point, the decision is most likely to be made by the end of this year, and the actual integration could happen in 2025. This is due to the European electoral context this year and the fact that Austria is holding internal elections in the fall, as Vienna’s position is unlikely to change by then.

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