site.btaEP to Put to Vote Resolution Calling for Full Application of Schengen Acquis for Bulgaria and Romania by Mid-2024

The Committee on Petitions of the European Parliament approved a draft resolution which calls for full application of the Schengen acquis for Bulgaria and Romania by mid-2024. The document is expected to be put to a vote in plenary by the end of April.

The document urges the Belgian Presidency and all Members of the Council to adopt as quickly as possible, and by no later than mid-2024, a decision on the full application of the Schengen acquis in Romania and Bulgaria, which will end border checks on the internal Schengen borders for the two countries.

It calls on the Commission, following an impact assessment, to propose immediate and binding legislative measures to create an EU-wide standard of one minute on average for handling heavy goods vehicles at intra-EU border crossing points so as to guarantee fluidity at internal Schengen and non-Schengen borders. That would allow goods and services to move quickly and efficiently, the draft resolution says.

The committee of petitions argues that hundreds of goods vehicles are held up every day at the EU’s internal borders, including the borders between Schengen and non-Schengen EU Member States, where they face extremely long wait times and delays due to processing and checks, the reason for that being that the current European legal framework does not set a time limit for the processing of goods at borders.

It also says that holding up goods vehicles at borders cause losses of hundreds of millions of euros for European businesses, particularly in the logistics, tourism and hospitality sectors, and aggravates air, water and noise pollution. The length of queues of goods vehicles on the EU’s external borders with Western Balkans countries is particularly worrisome, according to the draft resolution.