site.btaEU Council Expected to Approve Abolition of Last Checks at Schengen Borders of Bulgaria and Romania from January 1, 2025

The EU Council will vote at around 11:00 am Bulgarian time on Thursday on a decision to abolish checks at the Schengen land borders of Bulgaria and Romania from January 1, 2025. The decision is set as the first item on the agenda for the meeting of European interior ministers in Brussels.

The proposal of the Hungarian Presidency of the EU Council received preliminary approval from the ambassadors of the EU countries at the end of November. On December 30, 2024, a proposal of the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council to abolish air and sea borders in Schengen for Bulgaria and Romania was adopted. At that time, only Austria was against the complete abolition of Schengen border checks for both countries and it was decided that the date for the land borders would be set additionally.

On the eve of Thursday's meeting, Austria announced that it would no longer impose a veto, and the Dutch government informed the Parliament in The Hague that it joined the unanimity achieved in the Council of the EU.

Bulgaria and Romania had been expecting their accession to Schengen since 2010, when the Council of the EU considered that the legal requirements had been met. In the following years, despite this assessment and repeated calls by the European Commission and the European Parliament, the necessary unanimity was not achieved in the Council of the EU.

Scientists from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences calculated that with the decision expected on Thursday, the total positive financial effect for Bulgaria would be BGN 1.63 billion per year.