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Bulgaria and Romania join the Schengen area (ec.europa.eu)

submitted 6 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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On 31 March, Bulgaria and Romania become Schengen members: the Schengen rules will apply in both Member States including on issuing Schengen visas and controls at the internal air and sea borders will be lifted.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 6 months ago (1 children)

I really should watch/read the news sometimes, totally missed that! So the Vienna-Bucharest night train will be a bit faster 😁

[–] Levsgetso 19 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago) (2 children)

Nope, this “membership” is only for air and water travel. There are still border checks on land. A great victory, as the politicians said, indeed.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 6 months ago (1 children)

For now. Land borders is next on the agenda and the decision on when to lift them should be taken this year by the European Commission.

[–] Levsgetso 13 points 6 months ago (1 children)

It should have never happened. Gradual Schengen entry like this is for new members, not countries who have been meeting the criteria for 12 years.

The fact that countries like Austria can block others’ accession on blatant lies is beyond messed up.

Meanwhile, the Kilometers-long lines of trucks are still at the border, sometimes spending days there. The only things that changed are the two minutes you save at the airport and the politicians bragging how they “got us in Schengen”.

That was a shameful decision and a disgrace. The EU needs major reforms so countries like this can’t abuse their power or try to blackmail others, using Schengen.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 6 months ago (1 children)

Austria still stuck in "great power diplomacy" even though they have become a shrimp on the international stage.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 6 months ago

Austria has major elections coming up. Seems the right wing politicians try to gain points by that

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Bummer. Now I wonder how thee process will be, I get a passport stamp for entry by train but no exit stamp at the airport? 🤔