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The borders between Bulgaria, Romania, and Greece are falling

by AI | 02.Jan 2025 | Europe in brief AI

As of 1 January 2025, Bulgaria and Romania fully join the Schengen Area.

Rudozem – Xanthi border checkpoint. Photo: Hristina Georgieva, BTA

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SOFIA/RUSE – From midnight on January 1, 2025, regular border checks between Bulgaria, Romania and Greece will be terminated. Earlier this month, the EU Council approved this final step of Bulgaria and Romania’s full accession to Schengen.

The last closed border barrier between Bulgaria and Romania will be symbolically lifted by the interior ministers of the two countries Atanas Ilkov and Cătălin Predoiu at midnight on New Year’s Eve, reported the Bulgarian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On January 1, Bulgaria’s Acting Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev, along with ministers and representatives of government institutions, will visit the “Koulata” checkpoint on the border with Greece. The Prime Minister will check the on-site organization and symbolically lift the border barrier, announced the government’s information service.

The decision to admit Bulgaria and Romania into Schengen by land from January 1, 2025, was made by the EU Council on December 12, at the end of the Hungarian presidency. From March 31, air and sea Schengen border checks for both countries were abolished by a decision made at the end of the Spanish Presidency in 2023.

It is planned that in the first six months of the new year random checks will be carried out on the borders between Bulgaria and Romania, and between Romania and Hungary.

The director of the General Directorate “Border Police,” Chief Commissioner Anton Zlatanov stated in November that temporary checks will affect illegal migration, with about 5 to 10% of vehicles being separated for inspection at the end of the border zone, mostly exiting Bulgaria.

Measures to counter migrants, drug trafficking and the smuggling of other prohibited goods will be applied at the border with Greece, said Zlatanov.

Earlier in December, Bulgaria’s Acting Minister of Internal Affairs Atanas Ilkov stated that after January 1, activities on the Bulgarian-Turkish border will be intensified. He explained that from January 2 an international police contingent with 100 officers from Bulgaria, Austria, Romania, and Hungary will be deployed at this border. According to him, Greece has also expressed a desire to join the common efforts.

We will continue to work in the same way to ensure the safety and tranquility of Bulgarian citizens and other EU citizens, said Minister Ilkov at that time. (December 31, 2024)

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