According to EU Helpers, she stated that the European Commission has been persuaded for a number of years that Romania and Bulgaria are prepared to enter the Schengen Zone.
According to the President of the European Commission, Austria has been persuaded to take the initial steps towards air and maritime Schengen by means of several European-funded projects that the EU has carried out recently to fortify the borders in these two Balkan countries and on-site fact-finding missions.
She also emphasized that more funding for border security is included in the newly agreed-upon expanded multiannual EU budget, as reported by Digi24.
Foreign ministers Mariya Gabriel of Bulgaria, the deputy prime minister, and Luminita-Teodora Odobescu of Romania have committed to working together to achieve Schengen Zone full membership.
Austria vetoed Romania and Bulgaria's entry into the Schengen Area in December 2022 due to worries about irregular migration. Nevertheless, Vienna recently unveiled the "Air Schengen" plan, which permits these two nations to enter the Schengen area via air and sea as of March 2024.
However, Austria's interior minister, Gerhard Karner, stated that his nation will not be extending its veto when it comes to land border accession, believing that further land border enlargement of the Schengen Area is not acceptable at this time.
Recently, Dimitris Kairidis, Greece's Minister of Migration and Asylum, was urged by Romanian MEPs Dacian Ciolos and Vlad Gheorghe, Greek MEP Georgios Kyrtsos, and Bulgarian MP Daniel Laurer to remove border controls between these three nations in order to facilitate summertime tourism.
Nonetheless, Bulgaria's prime minister, Nikolay Denkov, emphasized that there is no political discussion for the removal of land border controls between these three nations. Moreover, he pointed out that this kind of action would violate EU law.