Turkey is slowing the expansion of the Schengen Area
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The EU is all about freedom of movement, the freedom of movement of your capital, of your work, and of you as an individual to move around the EU. And within the Schengen zone, which is primarily an EU construct, this allows people to cross borders without passports and without having to show ID.
So this already exists within the Schengen zone and three countries, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus have applied to join. Now, if you've been following our show over 2023 You know that Croatia was adopted into the Schengen zone at the start of 2023, but Romania and Bulgaria, because of long-standing objections, despite meeting all the criteria to join the Schengen zone since 2011, haven't been allowed to join.
And the Spanish presidency of 2023 of the EU Council was determined to try and get that final step completed for Romania and Bulgaria. And the answer is they didn't. But they did. Or didn't they? Or did they get another EU fudge?
And yes, they got some Christmas fudge.
So what's been announced in the end of December under the Spanish presidency is that for Romania and Bulgaria, they're not becoming full members of the Schengen zone. However, the requirement for passport controls at air and sea ports in Bulgaria and Romania are going to be lifted.
Romania doesn't have any sea borders, by the way, but Bulgaria does. And so it checks on you won't need a passport to fly into Romania or to fly into Bulgaria or to by boat into Bulgaria from another EU country. So people in Spain and France and Cyprus will be able to fly into Romania and Bulgaria without the passport and without the border checks on as an internal state.
The important thing is that this is for air and sea entry, not for land. So Romania and Bulgaria are not full members still of the Schengen zone, because if you're crossing a land border, you still have to show your passport and or your ID, your EU ID to get across that border and make that path.
So obviously there's still ongoing insecurities about migrants crossing border and the controls of the migrants entering into Romania and Bulgaria in the first place from Turkey, for example.
Turkey has got a border, a European land border with Bulgaria. So the question marks about those borders and so the land border remains and Romania and Bulgaria are not full members of the EU because of the issues with the Turkish border.
So that's coming in from the end of March 24. It's not fully there yet. Cyprus is still not a full member of the EU Schengen zone. The issues with Cyprus are pretty much the same.
It's the border with Turkey.
In theory, Cyprus doesn't have a border with Turkey, but in practice it does because the following a Turkish invasion after a Greek Cypriot revolution in 1974.
So they've got that Turkish border there that would need to meet the Schengen zone requirements and clearly if there's still this element of mistrust with Turkey about the quality of their border, then that's an issue as well.
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Turkey at the moment is not being considered as a member of the EU. They've applied to join in the past and not been allowed for a number of different reasons and also they're bordering on places of conflict which we've seen in 2023 in Azerbaijan, in Armenia, Ukraine, Georgia, all those countries where there's issues that are going on in recent years.
Syria have got a border with those so it's a pivotal place and those political and security issues are of key in the EU maintaining its Schengen zone borders. So we'll see what changes can be brought about. The next presidency of the EU can look at the land border situation and change that, but clearly in the short term that's not going to be an answer.
What the Schengen zone have committed to is that by May 25 the electronic travel authorities will be in place. This means that anyone who's got visa-free travel into the EU like UK citizens will now need electronic travel authority before they can board their plane or their boat to get into the country, much the same as you do with America at the moment.
This has been delayed and delayed by the EU for various technical reasons, but it gives another landmark where potentially with the introduction of electronic travel authorities in May 25 it gives the EU a deadline to make decisions on finally completing Romania and Bulgaria and possibly Cyprus's land border issues to see them cede into the European Schengen zone.
For more information and guidance on how this impacts you and how having a residency in an EU country can assist you in travelling around Europe and avoiding the 90 and 180 day Schengen zone restriction, contact us.