Romania and Bulgaria become full members of EU's Schengen zone

 Bulgaria's and Romania's full membership in the Schengen Area was celebrated on Wednesday, concluding years of negotiations for the Eastern European countries to join the ID-check-free travel zone.

On the first day of the new year, Bulgaria's caretaker prime minister, Dimitar Glavchev, symbolically lifted the border barrier at the Kulata crossing between Bulgaria and Greece.

"Today is a historic moment, the fruit of the efforts of many people. It is also a fact thanks to the border police, the military, Frontex staff and all our allies in the European Union. Together, we will all be much better able to protect the EU's external borders from Greece all the way to Finland," he said.

At midnight on 1 January, the interior ministers of Bulgaria and Romania met at the Ruse-Giurgiu border crossing between the two countries to mark the opening of the frontier.

Another short ceremony was held at a border crossing between Hungary and Romania with a meeting between Hungary's national chief of police and the chief inspector of Romania's border police.

The long wait is over

The combined 25 million residents of Bulgaria and Romania now join nearly 450 million EU citizens who already have the freedom to move around the Schengen zone. The two countries partially joined the Schengen Area in March, but open travel was restricted to those arriving only by air or sea.

It had been a long time coming, as the two countries first joined the European Union seventeen years ago - and negotiations to enter the Schengen Area began in 2011.

When the European Commission gave the green light to the countries in December, it marked an important signal to citizens of the two countries that they could now feel like fully fledged members of the European Union.

No more queues at borders

The Schengen zone was first established in 1985 and now includes 29 countries, most of which are EU nations, as well as some non-EU countries, including Iceland and Switzerland.

Until today, residents of the countries have had to queue for long periods of time at the 30 land borders between Romania and Bulgaria as they awaited official checks.

For Bulgarians and Romanians, this means that they will now be able to drive to France, Spain and Norway without a passport. Drivers and passengers no longer need to show any identity documents, and cars may pass without control.

However, at least for the first six months, random checks will be carried out on travellers at the border to deter criminal activities, with a particular focus on larger vehicles.

Some 1 million ethnic Hungarians live in the Transylvania region of Romania, a legacy of the partition of Hungary following World War I. Relations have been historically rocky between the two countries, but the opening of the border will ease travel and strengthen links between the regions.

It may also mean that more Europeans visit Romania and Bulgaria too, bringing with it a new generation of tourists.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/romania-bulgaria-become-fully-fledged-070059957.html