Austria and the Netherlands opposed the proposal of Romania and Bulgaria to become members of the Schengen area. The reason is that Europeans are not confident in the ability of applicants to guarantee the fulfillment of the Schengen migration standards.
According to Danielsson, whose country has chaired the EU since early 2023, Bulgaria and Romania will become members of the Schengen area as soon as Austria and the Netherlands give the “green light”, that is, an agreement on migration and “strength” borders will be reached.
“We see no point in putting the question concerning Romania and Bulgaria on the agenda until it is clear that there is a reasonable chance of getting approval in the Council. Of course, we will try to do this during the Swedish presidency, but I cannot guarantee that this will happen, — said Danielsson.
Last December, Austria and the Netherlands opposed the admission of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area, and if Austria insists on the impossibility of expanding the Schengen area until an acceptable immigration agreement is reached, Romania's application could be delayed until at least next year.
According to experts, this option is the most probable, since the permanent representative of Sweden to the EU, Danielsson, is increasingly inclined to believe that no migration pacts will be concluded during the Swedish presidency. Thus, the issue may literally hang until 2024.
Recall that in July Spain will assume the presidency of the EU.
Croatia was the last to join the Schengen zone, it also became a member of the eurozone, adopting the Euro as its currency from 1 January 2023.
With the accession of Croatia, the total number of Schengen countries has reached a total of 27 members, 23 of which are also EU countries. On the other hand, Croatia became the 19th country to join the Eurozone, and now 347 million EU citizens use the euro as their common currency.