The accession of Bulgaria and Romania to Schengen significantly strengthens the EU economy, according to a report by the EC

BRUSSELS – The full accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area significantly strengthens the economy of the European Union and it is expected that the two countries will save billions of euros in costs. This is stated in a report by the European Commission on the state of the area without border checks.

Before the removal of internal border checks, Bulgarian and Romanian companies paid billions of euros annually due to increased logistics costs, delivery delays, and high fuel prices and wages for drivers in freight transport, the report notes.

The document states that in the past year, many actions have been taken to strengthen Schengen to protect the external borders. Activities undertaken at the Bulgarian-Turkish border to prevent threats to the EU are noted.

In February, a joint team from Bulgaria, Austria, Romania, and Hungary took over the security of the Bulgarian-Turkish border. The Bulgarian Ministry of Interior reported that the migrant pressure towards Bulgaria from Turkey is decreasing permanently.

The EC report states that Schengen security systems have helped in the past year to reduce the number of illegal crossings of external borders, which has been the lowest since 2021. There is a 12 percent increase in the returns of foreign citizens without the right to stay in the Schengen area, the document records.

The Schengen area is the backbone of the internal European market and facilitates the lives of nearly 450 million people, the report states. Last year, the Schengen area was visited by over half a billion people, and this has encouraged economic growth, the commission adds.

Since the beginning of this year, the two countries have fully entered Schengen after a process that lasted 18 years. The decision to remove checks at the land Schengen borders of Bulgaria and Romania from January 1, 2025, was made by the EU Council on December 12 of last year, at the end of the Hungarian presidency. It affects the border checks of Bulgaria with Greece and Romania, and of Romania with Bulgaria and Hungary. From March 31, 2024, checks at the air and sea Bulgarian and Romanian Schengen borders were removed by a decision made at the end of the Spanish presidency in 2023. (23.04.2025)