Romania and Bulgaria have become full members of the European Union’s border-free Schengen area after scrapping land border controls in the bloc.

Bulgaria and Romania marked a historic milestone by fully integrating into the Schengen Area eliminating ID checks at land borders with neighboring European Union countries

Bulgaria and Romania are holding ceremonies to mark their full membership in Europe’s Schengen area, the culmination of years of negotiations by the Eastern European countries to join the ID check-free travel zone.

Bulgaria and Romania have become full members of the Schengen Area on January 1, 2025, marking a significant expansion of the world's largest borderless travel zone.

Lifting of controls at land borders will remove bottlenecks that often kept trucks loaded with goods stuck at border

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.