Romania will join Schengen overland from January 2025. The decision will be made on Friday in Budapest, Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Cholaku announced in an interview with Antena 3 TV, BTA reported.
A few days ago, the Austrian APA agency reported that on November 22, the Austrian Minister of the Interior Gerhard Kerner will meet with his colleagues from Romania and Bulgaria in the Hungarian capital to discuss the full accession of the two countries to the Schengen area. The initiator of these talks is the Hungarian rotating presidency of the Council of the EU.
"Friday's meeting is extremely important, so I have agreed with the Hungarian Prime Minister and I will go to Hungary on the day when the interior ministers meet to draw up the final document,”, Çolaku noted. He commented that the Dutch parliament, which opposed Bulgaria's accession, will also have to approve the document.
“However, we already have an agreed calendar. This (full acceptance into Schengen - note ed.) will happen from January 1, 2025. Romanians who go home for the holidays will leave much easier after that,", Colacu added.
He did not mention Bulgaria, but the two countries' accession to Schengen is being treated as a package deal, Reuters notes. The agency points out that Romania and Bulgaria are major routes for illegal arms trade and human and drug trafficking, but a thorough investigation by the European Commission has shown that they meet all Schengen requirements.
Joining the free movement area would add half a percentage point to Romania's annual economic growth, the country's finance ministry estimates.
The first round of the presidential elections will be held in Romania on Sunday (November 24). The latest polls give the current Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party, Marcel Çolaku, a lead. Voting in the second round is coming up on December 8.