Support from Austria: Bulgaria and Romania enter Schengen by air and sea from March 2024

Bulgaria and Romania to join Schengen by air and sea in March 2024. This is what the two countries have agreed with Austria in negotiations that are still ongoing. The information was officially released by the Romanian authorities and later confirmed by the Bulgarian ones on December 28. Further negotiations will follow on land borders next year.

Phased accession to Schengen. This is apparently the final formula that Bulgaria and Romania are moving towards in the negotiations with Austria and which has been known in recent weeks. Negotiations for full Schengen accession will continue next year. It is not yet clear whether Bulgaria’s entry via land borders will be fixed by a date or by specific conditions. Austria has already said that it expects Bulgaria and Romania to fulfil their commitments under the Dublin agreement, which means taking in those migrants who are in Austria but registered in Bulgaria. Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said that the news of Bulgaria’s admission by air and sea was an occasion for celebration.

Prime Minister confirms that Bulgaria will join Schengen by air and sea

Bulgaria and Romania will enter Schengen by air and sea from spring next year, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov has announced:

"Austria has committed to continue negotiations on opening the land borders as well. These negotiations will be combined with substantial support from the European Commission to protect the EU's external borders with Turkey and Serbia in order to reduce the flow of illegal immigrants to Europe. After 12 years without much progress on Schengen accession, today we can congratulate ourselves on this undisputable success of Bulgaria."

Negotiations with Austria have not yet been finalised, but the political agreement on our accession should go through a unanimous vote, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Mariya Gabriel explained:

“This is part of the negotiations. You know, first of all, that we have a reference, this is an act of Bulgaria' accession from 2005. It is important for us now in 2024 to make sure that, on the basis of the results shown, we move on to the next part of the decision."

In the talks with Vienna, there is currently no discussion of fixing a deadline for the conclusion of negotiations on land borders or on our full accession.

"So far, no date related to the land borders has been specified either with Romania, Austria or in the negotiations with the EC. What Austria has committed to is to continue the talks and negotiations on when the two countries will be accepted by land as well. Also, in our talks there has been no idea or discussion of separating Bulgaria and Romania in these negotiations," said PM Nikolai Denkov.

Denkov explained that there is no divergence between Sofia, Bucharest and Vienna on the objectives of guarding the EU's external borders, but the phases for strengthening external borders.

"For us, this remains a goal in the 2024 negotiations to have a date for the removal of barriers for land borders as well. Accordingly, so that the issue does not remain in any way low on Europe's agenda, that is why it is so important for us to have the support of the European Commission," said Mariya Gabriel, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Foreign Affairs.

The negotiations also discuss strengthening border controls between Bulgaria and Romania.

"Austria wants the controls that are in place to be fine-tuned to make sure that the filters work well so that migrants cannot be allowed to cross our borders, so that is part of the negotiation process at the moment, how to make the filters, as they say, so that migrants do not cross from there," Nikolai Denkov said.

Whether and how many migrants we would have to take back under the readmission clauses of the Dublin regulation is not yet clear.

"What is required is that those who are registered in Bulgaria, on the one hand, can be returned quickly, but this is our obligation under the Dublin Regulation and the second thing that is required is that we comply with our registration obligations in due order, without delaying," Denkov explained.

The Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior thanked the negotiating teams, the parliamentary groups supporting the government, Boyko Borissov and Ministry of Interior officials.

"The Ministry of Interior received excellent evaluation and support even from those who are currently hindering us on the path to full Schengen membership. The result of the Ministry of Interior is clearly fixed in the report of the fact-finding mission, which was carried out in November in relation to the country’s preparedness to join Schengen ", said Kalin Stoyanov, Minister of Interior.

Negotiations with Austria are supposed to be concluded by the end of the year.

Images by BTA