site.btaUPDATED MEPs to Reiterate Call for Full Schengen Membership for Romania and Bulgaria

MEPs are set to call on EU countries to admit Romania and Bulgaria as full members of the Schengen free-travel area, the European Parliament said, referring to the agenda of its session in Strasbourg next week. A debate with the European Commission is scheduled for November 26.

Border checks between the two countries and other Schengen members were lifted in March 2024 for maritime and air traffic, but checks remain in place at land borders.

MEPs are expected to urge the Council to swiftly finalize the work on Romania and Bulgaria's full accession to the Schengen area, the press release said. Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu and Bulgarian Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev have recently told the media that they expect a decision on Romania and Bulgaria's full accession soon from the home affairs ministers, to be effective in the first months of 2025.

In October, the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council announced that it envisaged a vote at a Home Affairs Council meeting on December 12. Ahead of it, a meeting is scheduled in Budapest between representatives of Bulgaria, Romania and Austria - the only country which did not support the complete lifting of checks at the Bulgarian and Romanian Schengen land borders a year ago.

Bulgarian MEP Andrey Kovatchev (EPP/GERB-UDF) told BTA in Strasbourg on Thursday that this time there definitely are signals and hope that all obstacles to Bulgaria and Romania's full accession to the Schengen area will be removed. He commented that Friday's meeting in Budapest of the interior ministers of Bulgaria, Romania and Austria is expected with great interest as Vienna's conditions for the two countries' full accession to Schengen will be discussed. The upcoming Home Affairs Council meeting on December 12 is also of great interest, he said.