Romania and Bulgaria become full members of EU's Schengen zone

2/1/2025 6:15

Romania and Bulgaria scrapped land border controls to become full members of the European Union's Schengen free-travel area on Wednesday, joining an expanded bloc of countries whose residents can travel without passport checks.



Fireworks lit the sky at a crossing close to the Bulgarian border town of Ruse just after the stroke of midnight as the Bulgarian and Romanian interior ministers symbolically raised a barrier on the Friendship Bridge straddling the Danube River. The crossing is a major transit point for international trade, and bottlenecks are common.



"This is a historic moment," said Bulgarian Prime Minister Dimitar Glavchev. "From Greece in the south to Finland to the North and all the way to Portugal to the West – you can travel without borders."