On Friday 22 November, the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council announced the lifting of Austria’s final reservations about Bulgaria and Romania joining the Schengen area in full by the end of 2024.
The Presidency hosted a meeting of the interior ministers of these three countries, at the end of which a declaration was signed.
The declaration recalls the progress made by these two countries at their external borders, which has resulted in a 47% and 53% fall in illegal arrivals in Romania and Bulgaria respectively, and a 67% fall in Austria between the first half of 2024 and the same period in 2023.
It also stresses that temporary controls at the internal borders between Hungary and Romania and between Romania and Bulgaria will still be introduced over a period of 6 months to manage the potential adverse effects of an immediate lifting of controls.
“Bulgaria and Romania belong fully to the Schengen area. Removing internal controls at land borders is the last hurdle. I welcome the positive outcome of the informal discussions in Budapest today”, commented the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, on X. “Let 2025 see Schengen become stronger”, she added.
Present in Budapest, the outgoing European Commissioner for Home Affairs, Ylva Johansson, also welcomed this development “towards a positive decision at the EU Council next month”. The EU interior ministers will meet in Brussels on 12 December.
Link to the statement: https://aeur.eu/f/efz (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)