Austria has lifted its veto on the inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria in the Schengen Zone, paving the way for their full membership. This decision follows months of resistance and was confirmed by Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner in a statement to the APA agency.
Austria’s Interior Ministry clarified that Vienna would not block the decision set to be finalized at the EU Council of Interior Ministers meeting in Brussels on December 12.
“After ‘air Schengen,’ Romania and Bulgaria are now also opening the door to ‘land Schengen,'” Karner remarked.
Romania and Bulgaria fulfilled the technical requirements for Schengen membership as early as 2010 but faced opposition from Austria and the Netherlands due to concerns over insufficient measures against illegal migration.
In late 2023, the EU approved a “partial” Schengen accession for the two countries, lifting checks at airports and seaports as of March 30, 2024.
More recently, Karner signed an agreement with Romania and Bulgaria’s interior ministers to bolster border security along the Bulgarian-Turkish border while temporarily maintaining land route checks. This agreement led to Austria signaling its readiness to support the countries’ full Schengen membership.
