Austria agreed on November 22 to lift its veto on the full accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen zone as of January next year, the Hungarian presidency of the Council of the European Union said in a statement.

Bulgaria and Romania were admitted to the Schengen border-free area at the end of March this year but only for air and sea transport. Austria blocked the lifting of land borders, demanding that Sofia and Bucharest take more steps towards decreasing illegal migration, as well as accepting back of migrants who reach Austria via either of the two countries.

Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania signed a joint declaration in Budapest on November 22, in which Austria pledged to lift the veto during the meeting of the Council of the EU on December 12.

“By concluding and implementing this declaration, the parties agreed to initiate the necessary steps for adoption of the formal Council decision on setting the date for the lifting of checks on persons at internal land borders with and between the Republic of Bulgaria and Romania, until the end of this year,” the declaration noted.

However, Austria, although praising the progress of the two countries, conditioned its decision on the continuation of efforts to limit illegal migration and secure strict border control.

In October, during a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council, all sides confirmed Bulgaria’s and Romania’s progress in implementing Austria’s demands.

“FRONTEX support on the external borders of Bulgaria and Romania is constantly extended, EU-financial support was significantly beefed up and consequently investments on the technical reinforcement of the borders is advancing (e.g. patrol vessels, all terrain patrol vehicles, unmanned aerial systems, motion detectors, thermal imaging cameras), the Schengen Regional Cooperation Initiative was initiated to improve information sharing and practical cooperation across borders, document advisors have been deployed at Sofia and Bucharest airport and the Dublin cooperation was significantly improved,” the joint declaration said.

Furthermore, illegal entries to Bulgaria decreased by 47% y/y in the first three quarters of 2024, to Romania by 53% y/y and to Austria by 67%. At the same time, asylum applications in Bulgaria dropped by 40% y/y in January-September, those in Romania fell by 75%, and in Austria they moved down by 57.3% y/y.

“This is a great moment. I am right now in Budapest where we have finalised a meeting with the ministers of interior of Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria and Romania where they have agreed to have decision to lift also the internal border controls, the land borders,” Yilva Johansson, the EU commissioner for home affairs, said in a video statement on X.

“This is a great day to achieve the full freedom of all of the citizens of Romania and Bulgaria into the Schengen area and I am very happy today,” she added.

Bulgaria’s caretaker Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev commented on Facebook that Bulgaria was praised for its progress on improving border protection during the meeting in Budapest.

He added that to some extent the border control will continue after the border lifting to guarantee that migrant entries do not increase again.

“There will be 100 people on the Bulgarian-Turkish border who will monitor the order, in this format — Bulgaria, Romania and Austria. 2,400 people are currently taking care of border security. We have increased the number of border police officers by 1,200 people, we have purchased off-road vehicles,” Glavchev commented.

Speaking from Budapest, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu also welcomed the decision. 

"The priority of my mandate as prime minister and of the government I lead is to finalise the process of Romania's accession to Schengen, by lifting the controls at the land borders, by the end of this year," said Ciolacu at a joint press conference with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. 

"Thanks to the active support of Hungary, in its capacity as the current Presidency of the EU Council, and of all the member states, from January 1, 2025, Romania will join the Schengen Area with land borders … Romanians have already felt the benefits of partial entry into the Schengen Area, but Romanian economic growth will be boosted with full accession, including by land.”