The European Union has announced its decision to include Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area, the world’s largest free movement zone. Starting March 2024, checks at air and sea borders with these countries will be lifted, enabling unrestricted movement for people and businesses. Discussions on lifting land border controls will take place later in the year.
The Commission first confirmed that both countries were ready to become part of the Schengen area in 2011. Since then, Bulgaria and Romania have continued to demonstrate that they fulfil the conditions for becoming Schengen members, and experts reconfirmed in 2022 and 2023 that they were ready to become members. Security, police and judicial cooperation measures have been introduced in these two countries to ensure that the EU remains strong against security threats. This ninth enlargement of the Schengen area will boost travel, trade and tourism and will strengthen the internal market.
The border-free Schengen area guarantees free movement to close to 450 million EU citizens, along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU. Free movement of persons means every EU citizen can travel, work and live in an EU country without special formalities. The Schengen area underpins this freedom by allowing citizens to move around the Schengen area without any border checks.
