site.btaBulgarian, Romanian Interior Ministers to Celebrate New Year's Eve at Danube Bridge on Occasion of Full Schengen Membership

Caretaker Interior Minister Atanas Ilkov and his Romanian counterpart Catalin Predoiu will symbolically lift the last closed border barrier between the two countries in the first minute of the New Year at the Danube Bridge border crossing point at Ruse-Giurgiu, the Bulgarian Ministry of Interior said Monday. The event will mark the full membership of the two countries in Schengen with the abolition of controls at the internal land borders.

At present, all people and vehicles passing through the Danube Bridge are subject to a full mandatory check. After the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area, the main part of the flow of people and vehicles will pass freely through the border crossing at Ruse. During the first six months of the Schengen membership of both countries a "risk analysis" method will be applied towards some of the vehicles, which will be separated from the passenger flow and checked at designated points, and will in no way interfere with other road users. The main reason for the control is to prevent the transport of illegal migrants, said Dimitar Chorbadzhiev, head of Ruse Border Police Regional Directorate. 

So far, cars travelling from Bulgaria to Romania pay a bridge toll at the border crossing at Ruse, then cross the bridge, and are checked at the border crossing at Giurgiu by a joint Bulgarian-Romanian team of border guards. The trucks moving towards Romania, after being weighed and paying the bridge toll on the Bulgarian side, pass through the bridge facility and are subject to a joint border check on Romanian territory, both on the documents and on the cargo carried. In the opposite direction, towards Bulgaria, heavy goods vehicles are not subject to a physical check of the load.

Once Bulgaria and Romania join the Schengen area, cars travelling to Romania will pay a bridge toll on the Bulgarian side, then cross the bridge, and on the Romanian side only a small part of them will be subject to border controls under the "risk analysis" method. It will be the same in the other direction. This also applies to heavy goods vehicles. 

For the last twenty-four hours a total of 930 trucks have passed through the facility in both directions. Of these, 412 entered and 518 left Bulgaria. Traffic is expected to be light on Tuesday.