Austria opposed the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen

Carl Nehammer

Austria opposes the entry of Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen area, before that it is necessary to clarify security issues related to illegal migration, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on the sidelines of the EU-Western Balkans summit in Tirana, ORF reports.

“At the moment there is no agreement to expand [the Schengen area to include] Bulgaria and Romania. <...> We have 75,000 undocumented illegal migrants in Austria,” he said.

According to Nehammer, we are talking about the security of the entire European Union.

The European Parliament supported the entry of Croatia into the Schengen Politics

On November 16, the European Commission announced the readiness of Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia to join the Schengen area and recommended that the EU Council approve this decision.

The EC statement noted that the actions of these countries "contributed to strengthening the security of the Schengen area, in particular during the covid-19 pandemic."

Earlier, the authorities of the Netherlands announced their readiness to block Bulgaria's entry into the Schengen zone. They attributed this to concerns about the security of the borders.

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At the same time, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called for the inclusion of the Balkan countries in the Schengen area. “Serbia and the Western Balkans are gateways to cheap energy for the EU. It's time for expansion," he tweeted.

The European Parliament has long advocated the expansion of the Schengen visa-free zone, which today includes 26 states (all EU member states except Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Ireland and Romania, and four non-EU associated countries: Norway, Iceland, Switzerland and Liechtenstein).

In November, MEPs voted in favor of Croatia joining the Schengen area. “The Commission and the Council confirmed the readiness of the country to apply the Schengen rules in full. The European Parliament fully agrees: the abolition of internal border controls should take place by the end of this year,” said Paulo Rangel, MEP from Portugal, Vice President of the European People's Party.

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