Travel News

By Andra Timu and Irina Vilcu

(Bloomberg) -- Romania and Bulgaria secured a deal that paves the way for full access to the European Union’s vast passport-free travel almost two decades after joining the bloc.

The two Balkan states signed an agreement on Friday with Austria, the lone holdout that had blocked accession over concerns about migration, Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said on X. It was signed by the three countries’ interior ministers after a meeting in Budapest, in an accord brokered by Hungary, which currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency.

Romania and Bulgaria, which joined the bloc in 2007, have been waiting ever since to fully access the so-called Schengen area, which Europeans regularly cite as one of the biggest benefits of EU membership and a major boon to trade and investment.

Their entry, likely at some point next year, will come as the passport-free area is challenged by increasingly nationalistic governments looking to stem migrant flows. Germany in September imposed temporary border controls as part of a crackdown against irregular migration, a move slammed by its EU peers. 

EU states softened their position on Schengen expansion last year by allowing the two Balkan countries admission in the areas of air and shipping travel from March of this year. But border controls remained in place for those transiting via road and rail — causing long queues at the borders and a financial hit. 

Bulgaria and Romania expect Schengen admission to significantly boost their economies. The two governments previously estimated the cost of continued exclusion from Schengen’s land access at between 2% to 5% of gross domestic product annually.

Officials in Bucharest and Sofia won over their Austrian counterparts by pledging to bolster border protection and curb migration. 

Under pressure from the far-right Freedom Party, Chancellor Karl Nehammer had put immigration at the top of the agenda during close parliamentary elections this fall. He relented with the election out of the way and as his People’s Party seeks to form a coalition with two centrist parties that would sideline the far-right. The Netherlands had already dropped its earlier objection.

Bulgaria and Romania still need to wait for a final vote in the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Council before their Schengen accession becomes official.

--With assistance from Slav Okov, Marton Eder and Patrick Van Oosterom.