Austria and Netherlands block Bulgaria and Romania’s bid to join Schengen

Europe, News December 9, 2022 , by IRIA No Comments

Austria has opposed Bulgaria and Romania’s accession in the Schengen, a passport and visa-free area of the European Union state that abolished border checks between 27 European Union states.

Despite joining the European Union six years after Bulgaria and Romania, Croatia received unanimous backing to join Schengen.

A high-stakes meeting between the interior ministers from the Schengen states was arranged in Brussels on December 8, 2022. The meeting was moderated by European Commissioner for home affairs Ylva Johansson. Minister voted on three countries’ applications to join the Schengen.

Romania and Bulgaria “are fulfilling all the requirements. They have been waiting for a long time. The citizens of Bulgaria and Romania deserve to be fully part of the Schengen area,” Ylva said after the meeting. “I thought, actually, that we would have the decision today. So, I think that today is a day of disappointment.” She said as she announced that Bulgaria and Romania’s bid to join the Schengen has been blocked for now.

To join Schengen Bulgaria and Romania required unanimous approval from all existing member states. Austria and Netherlands voiced their concerns about admitting the two countries into Schengen. The opposition had been brewing for a long time; however, it became evident a day before voting during a meeting between the EU ambassadors of Austria and the Netherlands that they would vote against the accession of the two countries.

*^{Croatian and European Union flags. (Image Credit: Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of Croatia)}*

Austria argued that a heavy influx of asylum seekers from the Western Balkan route demonstrates that Schengen is unable to cope with migration management. Although Romania is not part of that route, there is a large number of refugees and asylum seekers in Romania that would enter western Europe if Schengen management continues to show the same mismanagement.

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on December 7, 2022, a day before the important interior ministers meeting in Brussels, that his country has catered to more than 75,000 unregistered migrants this year.

Nehammer said that such a large number of refugees and asylum seekers in his country poses a “security issue that we cannot wipe away.” Nehammer called on the Schengen management to implement the five-point action plan and asked for the vote on the joint bid to be delayed “until next August.”

“The current state of uncertainty cannot continue. We have all the arguments, very solid, that support our requests,” Romania’s Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca said after the voting. “We basically can’t talk about a real justification at this point,” Ciuca said.

The Netherlands is open to Romania’s accession into the Schengen but remains opposed to Bulgaria’s entry over its reservations regarding unaddressed rule-of-law elements. Bulgaria is still run by a caretaker government since August this year, after a series of inconclusive elections.