Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner confirmed on Monday evening that “land Schengen” will now be opened to Romania and Bulgaria. This means that Karner will vote for the full membership of Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen zone on Thursday at the meeting of the Union Ministers of the Interior in Brussels. The EU member states will thus formally confirm the full admission of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area from January 1 next year.
At the end of November, the current Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU informed that the representatives of the EU member states agreed on the full admission of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area from the beginning of 2025. However, Austria confirmed the change of its position only on Monday.
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The acceptance of new countries into the Schengen area requires the unanimous consent of the member states of the European Union. Bulgaria and Romania met the criteria for entering the area of free movement already in 2011, but some states blocked the access of these two countries for various reasons – in 2011, the Netherlands and Finland.
Later, Germany opposed the admission of both Balkan countries, but especially Austria, which blocked the full entry of Bulgaria and Romania at the end of 2022. Later, Vienna agreed to at least limited membership of both countries. At the same time, she was worried about the influx of asylum seekers for a long time.
There is panic in the EU because of migrants, Schengen will fall apart, predicted Orbán at the meeting with Fico and Vucic
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