The list of Schengen countries may expand on December 9 when a final vote in the Council of Justice and Internal Affairs will determine whether or not Romania, Bulgaria and Croatia will be accepted as members of the Schengen Zone.
The European Commission has called on the council to allow Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia to join in the Schengen area without delay.
An enlarged Schengen area without internal border controls is expected to make Europe safer through reinforced protection of common external borders and effective police co-operation.
Bulgaria and Romania successfully completed the Schengen evaluation process in 2011. In December 2021, the council confirmed that Croatia had fulfilled the conditions required to join the Schengen area without internal border controls as well.
The evaluation process took place from 2016 to 2020.
Recently, lawmakers from the Netherlands called on their country not to further the process of acquiring Bulgaria and Romania into the Schengen Zone until more investigations had been done into border surveillance and corruption in those countries. However, last month, members of the European Parliament called on EU countries to let Bulgaria and Romania join the zone as soon as possible, Schengen Visa Info reports.
“Maintaining internal border checks is discriminatory and has a serious impact on the lives of mobile workers and citizens. By obstructing imports, exports, and the free flow of goods from freight ports, they also harm the European Union single market,” reads a report from the European Parliament.
