Political agreement was reached on 23 December with the Austrian and the Bulgarian interior ministry on enlarging the Schengen area as of March, 2024, to include Romania and Bulgaria by air and sea. This was announced officially on the Romanian Interior Ministry website, as quoted by the Bulgarian news agency BTA.

According to this information, there will be negotiations later in the year on entry into the area of free movement for land borders as well. The coordinated date, at an EU level, on accession to Schengen for air and maritime transport is 31 March, 2024, the Romanian newspaper Adevarul writes, citing government sources. According to the publication, the agreement reached must be confirmed within two days with a vote at the Committee of Permanent Representatives of the EU (COREPER). 

“It has to be very clear from now on what the exact date is on which Bulgaria and Romania will join Schengen, to begin with by air and by sea, and what the conditions are,” Minister of Economy Bogdan Bogdanov said in a comment on the information by Romania’s Interior Ministry, for Nova TV. He went on to say that the talks will continue until the last minute, and that though Bulgaria fulfilled all conditions as far back as in 2011, the date for accession to Schengen is difficult to determine.