The partial accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen Zone from March this year has been welcomed by the National Union of Road Hauliers from Romania (UNTRR).
However, the organisation has called on the Romanian and European authorities to establish a clear date for land borders’ accession as well.
A recent UNTRR report revealed that remaining outside the passport-free travel zone has cost the road freight industry €2.41 billion in losses.
UNTRR Secretary-General Radu Dinescu considers the accession of Romania through land an emergency for road freight carriers whose efficiency is penalised through the prolonged waiting times.
Besides, coach operators want to avoid additional administrative work from new obligations such as verifying passenger data in the European Entry/Exit System (EES) and the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS).
We request the urgent setting of a definite date for Romania’s Schengen entry with land borders too, and if there are certain special requirements, they should be clearly mentioned in order to have a precise reference regarding the accession calendar and the goals to be achieved.
He emphasised that the criteria other members of the EU states want Romania and Bulgaria to fulfil must not exceed the general framework as well as the technical requirements for admission.
Dinescu noted that membership to the Schengen Zone is an important and much-awaited step for Romanian passenger and transport operators, a step that should have happened back in 2011 when European institutions confirmed that Bucharest met all the needed conditions for admission.
According to the UNTRR secretary general, the expansion of the Schengen Area with Romania’s air borders could have happened much earlier, after all passenger data is at the disposal of air transport operators.
There is obviously no justification of a technical nature for the delay, the reasons are political, the members of the EU club have chosen to punish Romania and Bulgaria and reduce their competitiveness all this time, curbing their development potential.
Bucharest and Sofia will join the Schengen Area by air and sea from March 2024, following the agreement between Romania, Bulgaria, and Austria, which proposed the
plan. At the same time, discussions about the accession through land borders are expected to take place this year.
Due to concerns related to irregular migration, Vienna blocked the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen Zone, in December 2022. However, in December of last year, Austria’s Interior Minister, Gerhard Karner, presented the “Air Schengen” proposal consisting of four conditions for the partial accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the Schengen Zone.
