On Thursday, the European Council allowed Croatia to join the Schengen visa-free travel zone from 1 January, while Bulgaria and Romania’s membership bids were declined.
“When it comes to the accession of Romania and Bulgaria, we are not united and that makes us very weak and that makes me also sad,” said EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson.
Today marks a good day for citizens of Croatia -welcome to Schengen.
— Ylva Johansson (@YlvaJohansson) December 8, 2022
To citizens of Bulgaria and Romania I say this -you deserve to be fully part of Schengen -I will support every step to achieve this in my mandate.
Statement with Minister @Vit_Rakusan https://t.co/jsva62jpz0
“You deserve to be full members of Schengen, you deserve to have access to the free movement in the Schengen area,” she declared.
Austrian Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner said that he was against the two countries’ membership due to rising security concerns, with Austria reporting 100,000 illegal border crossings this year, of which 75,000 had not been listed in any of the other Schengen nations.
“It is wrong that a system that does not work properly in many places would get expanded at this point,” he stressed.
#Schengen 🇭🇷🇧🇬🇷🇴: “All three countries equally fulfilled the criteria!“ @BMI_Bund Minister Faeser expresses her disappointment over two 🇪🇺countries vetoing full accession for #Romania and #Bulgaria. #Croatia received the green light at today‘s Council of #HomeAffairs ministers. pic.twitter.com/wz1kVm2pR0
— Germany in the EU (@germanyintheeu) December 8, 2022
Similarly, the Netherlands denied membership to Bulgaria over corruption and migration issues but agreed to approve Romania’s application.
However, German Minister of the Interior and Community Nancy Faesar, who supported the bids of all three countries, remarked that she “cannot understand Austria’s position in this respect,” noting that Vienna had “big domestic debates” over the issue.
Likewise, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Berlin “will continue to work” to ensure that Sofia and Bucharest are able to join the zone as well. “We are also confident that we will succeed in the end,” he added. German Minister of Foreign Affairs Annalena Baerbock, too, appealed “in particular to Austria to reconsider its ‘no’ to Romania and Bulgaria.”
I’m glad Croatia’s efforts have been recognised. Congratulations @AndrejPlenkovic @DavorBozinovic on Croatia’s entry into Schengen.
— Margaritis Schinas (@MargSchinas) December 8, 2022
Today is a a day of disappointment for Romania and Bulgaria but our efforts will not stop here. Leaders meet next week. A way forward must be found
The European Commission has endorsed membership for Bulgaria and Romania since 2011. In fact, the European Parliament adopted a new resolution last month, calling their exclusion from the area “discriminatory.” European Commissioner for Promoting our European Way of Life Margaritis Schinas has called opposition to their bids “political,” arguing that enlarging Schengen actually “means more and better controls, not less.”
Romanian Prime Minister (PM) Nicolae Ciucă expressed regret over not being granted access to the area, saying that we “honestly do not understand the inflexible position taken by Austria.” He affirmed that Bucharest would nevertheless apply again.
Disappointing to see national politics once again playing a role in blocking 🇧🇬 & 🇷🇴 #Schengen accession. Our citizens are no less Europeans than anyone else, and it's high time to end this discriminatory treatment. We belong together in the #EU, we belong to Schengen.
— Ilhan Kyuchyuk (@ilhankyuchyuk) December 8, 2022
On the same day, the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Austrian Ambassador Adelheid Folie over Vienna’s “unjustified and unfriendly attitude.” Calling the result “completely unfair and devoid of any objective motivation,” it expressed regret for the impact “Austria’s negative vote today has on European unity and cohesion.”
“Especially in the current complicated geostrategic context… and Russia’s persistent attempts to fracture European unity,” it added.
Romanian Chamber of Deputies President Marcel Ciolacu, too, condemned Austria’s decision, calling it a “free Christmas gift” for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Congratulations to #Croatia on joining #Schengen! Our 🇪🇺 family grows stronger!
— Paulo Rangel (@PauloRangel_pt) December 8, 2022
However, it is deeply disappointing that Bulgaria and Romania’s applications were rejected. A profound failure, a crucial mistake and a grave injustice to 🇧🇬🇷🇴.EU will pay a high price for this error. pic.twitter.com/qz0mtCH1JB
“European unity and stability have today received a hard blow from a state that has chosen, in difficult times, to abandon its European comrades and serve… the interests of Russia,” he said, adding, “Austria is clearly disconnected from Europe.”
Romanian Deputy PM Honor Keleman promised to “continue to fight” to join Schengen “without giving in to Austria’s miserable blackmail.”
“Austria’s veto is unfair, immoral, lacking solid arguments, showing a miserable political game,” he wrote on Facebook.
#Croatia, which joined 🇪🇺 in 2013, has leapfrogged #Romania & #Bulgaria, who joined in 2007, to be in #Schengen.
— Dave Keating (@DaveKeating) December 9, 2022
Why? Two reasons: geography and trust. Austria and others don't trust 🇷🇴🇧🇬 to manage the sensitive 🇪🇺 free movement external border with 🇹🇷.pic.twitter.com/VSxqO9yJge
Last week, Dutch PM Mark Rutte claimed that Bulgarian border security forces could begin accepting cash bribes to allow migrants into the bloc. In retaliation, Bulgarian President Rumen Radev revealed that three Bulgarian border officers had been killed recently while defending the bloc’s borders.
Sofia and Bucharest invited EU fact-finding missions twice in recent months to assess the improvements in a bid to assuage the bloc’s concerns. Keeping this in mind, Bulgarian Minister of Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev appeared to be positive prior to the announcement, saying, “Austria already signaled that there are mechanisms, compromises that it is ready to accept. So, the talks will continue.”
After the meeting, however, he told Euronews: “Two member states expressed reservations but they don’t have any particular concerns with relations to Schengen.”
The Schengen drama about the membership of Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia led to a wave of reactions from the parties in Bulgaria - from calls for a “firm response” and a “Dutch boycott” to Bulgaria’s exit from the EU.
— Ruslan Trad (@ruslantrad) December 7, 2022
“The argument of Austria is that Schengen is not working and we must unite our efforts to make Schengen work as it has to, and then enlarge it with Bulgaria and Romania. Until then, Bulgaria is not responsible for the internal problems in Austria,” he added. He also mentioned that Sweden, which takes over the EU presidency next, has “assured that it will make efforts in this direction.” Furthermore, Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Teodora Genchovska affirmed that Sofia would apply for the Schengen zone again.
However, Czech Minister of Interior Vít Rakušan expressed his confidence that other members would be able to join the 26-country zone as well after implementing the necessary steps, affirming that European Union (EU) members “will continue to work hard to ensure that we can welcome Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen family in the near future.”
The Bulgarian citizens are paying the price of the ruling and corrupted environment of GERB.“ 4/7
— Reinier van Lanschot (@RLanschot) December 8, 2022
Rakušan also clarified that Romania and Bulgaria were voted as one joint item and that decoupling their bids was not possible “from a legal point of view.”
The accession to the Schengen, the world’s largest free travel zone, requires unanimous approval from all 22 EU states, along with Lichtenstein, Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland. Nearly 1.7 million people live in one Schengen country and work in another, and about 3.5 million cross an internal border every day.