Brussels Supports Austria’s Proposal for ‘Air Schengen’ Access for Romania & Bulgaria

Austria’s “Air Schengen” proposal that would permit Romanian and Bulgarian citizens to travel to Schengen countries by air without being required to pass through passport controls has been supported by the European Commission, which stressed that talks to implement the proposal are underway.

Things are moving in a positive direction, and that is definitely what is important at this stage.

However, the proposal of the Interior Minister of Austria, Gerhard Karner, clarifies that rules might be loosened only for air travel, but land border crossing would still be restricted, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.

Austria, which has continuously opposed the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen Zone, has recently introduced the following four conditions that would help the inclusion of these two states, but only for air travel:

• A threefold increase in Frontex mission staff in Sofia, with financial backing for border protection infrastructure provided by the Commission and technical modernisation of the Bulgarian-Turkish and Romanian-Serbian borders.
• Enhanced border surveillance measures at the borders between Romania and Bulgaria as well as those between Hungary and Romania.
• Deployment of Austrian advisers on document-related issues in order to collaborate with airport teams in both Romania and Bulgaria.
• Reception of asylum seekers, particularly those from Afghanistan and Syria, in Romania and Bulgaria.

The Commission emphasised that it was analysing Austria’s requests, according to a Commission spokesperson.

For the European Commission, the protection of external borders is a fundamental priority. Let this be clear. We will ensure that the necessary funding is made available.

Austria’s proposal was welcomed by the Prime Minister of Romania, who considered it a successful conclusion.

We broke the ice! This means that Romanians will no longer have to face long queues when flying within the EU. We have worked hard over the last few months to get to this point, and I am grateful to everyone who fought for Romania.

However, according to a report from Euronews, the proposal has been considered “unacceptable” by Bulgarian Prime Minister Nikolay Denkov. He told the media that what is acceptable is for Bulgaria to comply with general European rules, stressing that if someone wants other specific rules for Sofia, that is “categorically unacceptable.”

Irregular migration concerns have been cited by authorities in Vienna as the main reason for the ongoing opposition to Romania and Bulgaria’s accession to the Schengen Zone.

During the meeting of the EU Interior Ministers on December 5 this year, the Interior Minister of Austria, Gerhard Karner, said that the Schengen Area should become “better, not bigger”. However, no vote was included on the agenda of the meeting.

In addition to Austria, which opposes the membership of both Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen Area, in the case of Bulgaria, the process is also opposed by the Netherlands, citing the same concerns.