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full screen Passengers walk under a Schengen information sign at Bucharest Henri Coanda Airport in Romania earlier this week. Photo: Andreea Alexandru/AP/TT
After 13 years of waiting, Romania and Bulgaria are now being allowed into the Schengen area with open borders this weekend – but only partially.
The free movement applies from Sunday. But only for air traffic and shipping because Austria has opposed the countries becoming full Schengen members, fearing a large influx of asylum seekers.
Although many see great symbolic value in the countries joining, not everyone is therefore happy. The truck drivers’ union has repeatedly protested against the long queues at the borders of its European neighbours.
– Romanian drivers have lost billions of euros every year, just because of long waiting times, said Radu Dinescu, the general secretary of Romania’s largest road transport association, earlier in March.
Romanian truck drivers may have to wait 8-16 hours at the Hungarian border, and 20-30 hours at the Bulgarian border.
For Bulgaria, the land route is by far the most important.
– Only 3 percent of Bulgarian goods are transported by air and boat. We don’t know when the other 97 percent will be there, says Vasil Velev, chairman of the Bulgarian industry association Bica.