“Schengen” or Bulgaria’s Forbidden Land
On December 8th, 2022, the Netherlands and Austria voted against Bulgaria and Romania joining the Schengen Area.
Have you ever wondered if you could cross country borders without the need for a passport? Sounds crazy, right?
In fact, there is an existing passport-free zone that covers a large part of Europe — called “Schengen”. According to the European Commission Factsheet on Schengen, more than 400 million EU citizens can travel around the EU freely without presenting any ID cards or passports. For better reference, the population of the US as of 2023 is 331,002,651. This is how enormous the Schengen Area is! You can virtually travel from Portugal to Finland without passing any border checks.
As per Marvel’s beloved character Ben Parker, “Power comes with great responsibility,” Schengen provides great power and freedom for its EU citizens but also requires a great deal of attention for the member states. For instance, all member countries should maintain good judicial relations and close police control to limit any criminals exploiting the system. The National Police of the member states can enter other countries in cases of pursuit. What is more, the police can also make use of the Schengen Information System which serves as a database and alert system for suspicious persons or objects.
Can you guess how old Schengen is?
Schengen dates to 1985 when the Schengen Agreement was first signed by 5 member states of the EU — Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany. Back then, the agreement was not codified in EU law. Later, in 1990, the Schengen Convention was ratified, which allowed people to freely travel without border checks between the member states. Finally, countries started entering the Convention and in 1997 Schengen was codified in EU law, which made all EU member countries obliged to sign up.
Currently, as of the beginning of 2023, 22 EU countries and 4 non-EU countries: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland, and Lichtenstein are part of Schengen. Out of the 27 EU countries Romania and Bulgaria were recently rejected accession, while Croatia was admitted. The question, then, comes to why was Bulgaria not admitted to Schengen?
It is important to briefly mention what are the requirements for countries to be granted access into the Schengen Area. First, for a candidate country to enter the Area it is important to have a well-developed and working border control on countries outside the Area. Second, specialists from the EU visit the candidate country and rate it on 4 categories of how well it implements the following criteria: air border, visa, police cooperation, and Personal Data Protection. The ratings are then sent to the Council of the European Union for approval. Accession is finally granted when all countries vote unanimously.
On December 8th, 2022, the Netherlands and Austria voted against Bulgaria and Romania joining the Schengen Area.
In a December 9th, 2022, article by Jorge Liboreiro published on Euronews, before the elections Bulgaria and Romania had great chances of being granted accession as the most influential states France and Germany gave their support. More so did Finland, Sweden, Denmark, and Belgium, which increased their odds of entering Schengen. Bulgaria and Romania have both been ready to enter the area since 2011 when the Council did a check and concluded that all formal accession criteria are met.
However, none of the abovementioned facts were enough to stop the Austrian and Dutch rejection.
In a December 8th, 2022, article by Nick Thorpe published on BBC the Netherlands and Austria cited concerns that both countries are soft on illegal migration. “Austria got this year more than 100,000 illegal border crossings, 75,000 of them not registered, although we are an inland country in the middle of Europe — in the middle of the Schengen countries,” says Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner. Frontex, the EU’s border control, agency considers that these immigrants have come from the West Balkan route that goes through Bulgaria and Romania.
As Romania and Bulgaria are the countries closest to immigrant routes it is of utmost importance for them to have strong border control. Otherwise, vast amounts of immigrants will enter Europe. The illustration below shows the geographical location of Bulgaria and Romania.
More reasons for the Netherlands to reject Bulgaria’s bid concerns its anti-corruption legislation, organized crime, and that it’s been having a caretaker government since August 2022, and a series of inconclusive elections for the past two years. Bulgaria’s Interior Minister, Ivan Demerdzhiev, argues that these concerns have no relation to Schengen, whatsoever.
At the end of the voting on December 8th Ylva Johansson told reporters the Commission is optimistic and will ensure that the countries are admitted before the end of her mandate.
Bulgaria’s denial of accession into Schengen is considered a big defeat for the whole nation… or is it? Could someone be exploiting the system and making profits from all this?
According to Boris Gurov, a Politics professor at the American University in Bulgaria, argues that the inflow of immigrants may not be the sole reason for Bulgaria to be left out of Schengen. He says that many politicians are exploiting the customs and are receiving a lot of gains. One of the more recent scandals regarding politicians exploiting the customs is the case of “Kapitan Andreevo.” In this case, the Bulgarian government secretly imposed a monopoly on the goods flowing into the country. Professor Gurov argues that the Bulgarian politicians are purposefully keeping the customs from operating properly, as expected.
However, Prof. Gurov also argues that Romania should have been admitted to the Area as they have done everything possible to be granted access. He argues that Romania was intentionally left out of the Schengen Area so that Bulgaria does not develop stronger links with the Russian government.
In all, Bulgaria was denied entry to Schengen because of its inefficiency when it comes to border control on the countries outside of the Schengen Area. Finally, corruption and inefficient government are also considered a huge part of the problem. To finish on a more optimistic note, at least Ylva Johansson is optimistic that Bulgaria will be admitted soon. Phew!
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Vasil Stoyanov is a Senior student at the American University in Bulgaria. He is Bulgarian and hopes that Bulgaria will soon be admitted to Schengen.
