Vienna does not confirm the Schengen Agreement – DN.se

Both Bulgaria and Romania are members of the European Union, but with Cyprus and Ireland they are the only two EU member states that are not part of the Schengen Cooperation. This means that they must have border controls against other member states and that Romanians and Bulgarians cannot travel unimpeded within the Union.

“After 13 years, Romania will finally join the Schengen Area! We have reached a political agreement,” Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciulacu announced on social media on Thursday.

Prime Minister of Bulgaria Nikolai Denkov agrees that a “settlement in principle” has been reached. But the Ministry of the Interior in Austria on Thursday did not want to confirm the agreement between the two parties and said that negotiations were continuing.

As the latter country, Austria continued to veto the two Eastern European countries' accession to the Schengen Area, stating that EU external border controls were too weak and that many migrants were coming to Austria illegally.

According to data received from In Romania, the agreement means Romanians and Bulgarians will be able to travel to other Schengen countries without border controls from March next year – whether they travel by plane or by sea.

For now, people traveling overland will still have to stop at border checkpoints and identify themselves. This issue has been postponed for new discussions next year. The Austrian government announced in December that it was ready to agree to expand the scope of “Lufchingen” if controls at the European Union’s external borders were strengthened.

Romania is bordered by Hungary, a European Union country, to the west, and Bulgaria is bordered by Greece to the south. The countries joined the European Union in 2007.