Air-Sea Schengen - a glimmer of hope for free movement

We finally have, since yesterday, the air and maritime Schengen which, from the superior position of full member of the area of free movement of goods and persons, Austria granted us at the last meeting of the Council of Justice and Internal Affairs last year. The political leaders in our country competed in pompous political statements, in promises regarding the terrestrial Schengen that have no coverage in the political reality of Brussels, even if Romania has since 2013 met all the technical conditions of the community acquis regarding unconditional access to the Free circulation.

In reality, nothing has changed for ordinary people. Indeed, for those who travel by plane or by various cruise ships on the Danube, or by ships on the European seas and in the eastern part of the Atlantic Ocean, the fact that they no longer have to stand in line to present their passport or identity card identity when entering or leaving an EU member state is a change. Or rather, a reduction in the time allocated to checks in each European airport or port.

However, although it appears from the data of the Ministry of the Interior that of the 23 million passengers who traveled abroad by plane in 2023, 15,180,000 (66%) represent the number of passengers who traveled in the Schengen area, not all of them are Romanian citizens . Most of those who live and work abroad, in the states of the European Union, come home for holidays and vacations with their own car or by bus, minibus or train, so for them we do not see any change since yesterday. They will have to continue standing in the customs queues in the west of the country, just like the Romanians who choose to spend their holidays in Greece and Bulgaria and go there with their own car or another means of transportation will have to stand to present their identity document land transport.

Just like them, the drivers of the trucks that take out or bring goods into the country will continue to spend days in customs, although the road transport of goods recorded, according to data presented recently by Senator Alexandru Nazare, losses of 16 billion euros in the 11 years in which we are kept at the Schengen gates, i.e. more than the 13.6 billion euros, amount that represents the grant component of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. Freight transport is mainly carried out by road and rail and less on the Danube or by air cargo flights to and from the member states of the European Union.

The road transport of goods from Romania to the EU and from the EU to our country amounts to a volume that exceeds 60 or even 65 million tons annually (out of over 300 million tons of goods transported annually on the roads of our country), according to published data by the National Institute of Statistics. According to the representatives of road freight transport operators, a road between the Port of Constanţa and Vienna, which is almost 1,400 kilometers long, could be completed in less than a day by a TIR with two drivers or 36 hours by a truck with a driver. In reality, this journey takes at least two days, due to the customs controls at the borders of Romania and Hungary. This means, first of all, higher costs with employees who stay instead of hauling goods during monthly business hours.

The reception of our country in the so-called Air Schengen does not reduce the respective financial losses as long as the air transport of goods amounted to the end of 2022, according to Eurostat, to only 47,636 tons. Of this amount of goods transported by air in 2022 from our country, only 32,459 tons represent goods transported to the EU. Moreover, no airport in Romania (not even Otopeni) is in the top 20 cargo transport airports in the European Union.

This proves that the main ways of freight transport to and from the EU are in our country road transport and rail transport, which are bypassed by our country's accession to the so-called Air Schengen.

• Marcel Ciolacu: "We have a plan so that, by the end of the year, we have full accession to Schengen, including land"

However, the statements of the political leaders let us glimpse a small hope regarding the total freedom of movement in the community space.

Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said on Friday: "In less than 48 hours, Romanians who will travel to Schengen will forget about the classic control at the airport. They will go straight to the boarding gates. (...) Here, we managed to have "Air Schengen" and maritime Schengen from March 31. It is a first step that confirms that we are on an irreversible path. It is a victory for Romania and for all those who believed in this project. We have a plan so that, by the end of the year, we will have full accession to Schengen, including terrestrial frontiers. For this to happen, however, the national interest must prevail over political pride. Nothing can be built when there is chaos and political forces are arguing with each other. There is a need for stability and a united voice around major country projects, such as Schengen".

For his part, the president of the Senate, Nicolae Ciucă, president of the PNL, said: "The March 31 accession to Schengen with air and maritime borders brings Romania closer to Europe. Romanians will be more respected in the European space and will travel by plane from Timişoara to Paris as they travel from Timişoara to Bucharest. It is a milestone success, the result of a joint effort by President Klaus Iohannis and state institutions, to which PNL directly contributed. The next goal: full accession to Schengen as soon as possible - and with land borders".

The first flights from the Schengen area were scheduled to land at the Henri Coandă - Otopeni airport yesterday, between 00:05 and 01:00. It is about the flights that left on Saturday evening from Paris, Vienna, Hamburg, Rome, Zurich, Munich, Amsterdam and Geneva, according to a press release issued by Compania Nationala Aeroporturi Bucharest.

According to the information issued by the Ministry of the Interior and the Border Police, over 160,000 flights were registered at Romanian airports in 2023 - 66% of them being Schengen. 23 million passengers traveled through those flights, most of them being registered at Otopeni, somewhere around 14 million, followed by Cluj-Napoca Airport, with around 3 million, and Iaşi Airport, with around 2 million. Of the total number of passengers, 300,000 were minors, and in the case of 2,500 of them, the measure was taken of not allowing them to leave the country.

• Changes regarding identity control

Starting yesterday, with the accession to Air Schengen, people traveling to or from destinations in the Schengen member states will no longer have to go through border control. This control is lifted in the 17 airports in the country and in the 4 seaports in Constanţa county. Passengers entering the terminal, after going through the security control procedure, an activity that is carried out only by the structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and an activity that is current in all airports in the Schengen Area, are no longer subject to the control of identity documents at the border, but they go straight to the boarding gates. The counters that functioned for the control of Schengen documents, are functioning since yesterday only on the non-Schengen flow.

Along this entire route, they will be able to be checked by the Border Police, the mixed crews of the Romanian Police, the Romanian Gendarmerie and the General Inspectorate for Immigration. Those controls are random to detect those with false travel documents, wanted persons or those prohibited from leaving the country. If no problems are detected during the control procedures of the Police and Gendarmerie teams, the passengers will continue their journey without any problem, and if certain problems are identified, the person or persons concerned will be led into the line the second verification, where, based on additional activities, their situation will be clarified.

As for the citizens who come to Romania from Schengen, they are no longer controlled, from the point of view of identity, after disembarkation, but they can be randomly checked by the Police and Gendarmerie teams. In order to simplify the interaction with citizens and reduce the verification time, at the level of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the control mechanism has been improved by equipping the staff with scanning systems, document verification in a digital form and systems that can be used on the go, mobile .

As for minor Romanian citizens, as in the case of adults, they will no longer carry out border control and will also go directly to the boarding gate. They will not need any additional approval, being able to travel in the Schengen area with the same documents as before. If it is found that they are not in their possession, they will not be allowed to leave the country. Accompanying minors, other than the parents or legal representative, are no longer required to present the criminal record certificate in physical format, it is consulted electronically by the border police. However, if the border policeman finds that the minor's companion has committed certain crimes provided by law, he will not be allowed to leave the country with the minor. It is about the following crimes: murder; crimes against sexual freedom and integrity; crimes related to the trafficking and exploitation of vulnerable persons; unlawful deprivation of liberty; crimes related to drug trafficking or precursors; trafficking in human tissues or organs; terrorist crimes.

If the minor travels accompanied only by a parent or a third person, the following are required: valid travel document; the consent of the other parent if traveling accompanied by only one parent; consent of both parents when traveling accompanied by a person other than the parent; only the travel document if he is traveling to his home/residence and provides proof of this; only the consent of one of the parents when traveling for studies/competitions/medical treatment and proves the stated purpose of the trip. If the minor is over 16 years old and traveling unaccompanied, he will need: a valid travel document; consent from both parents; only travel document if it provides proof of domicile/residence in the country to which you are travelling.

• Joining after 11 years

We remind you that our country successfully completed the technical evaluation stage provided for by the Schengen acquis on June 9, 2011. Romania's successful completion of the measures provided for by the Schengen acquis was confirmed by the European Council on December 13-14, 2012. In its process regarding full accession to the free movement area, Romania has completed a series of technical stages, by obtaining full access to the Schengen Information System (SIS), with the adoption, on August 1, 2018, of a Council Decision in this regard meaning, as well as by the adoption, on October 12, 2017, of the Decision on the passive access of Romania and Bulgaria to the Visa Information System (VIS), the latter being effectively implemented in 2021.

However, the political decision regarding the partial accession of our country to the Free Movement Area was only taken in December 2023, as a result of the opposition, over time, of the Netherlands or Austria.

The Schengen area is an area of free movement and allows more than 400 million people to travel freely between member countries without going through border controls. The Schengen Borders Code allows Member States to reintroduce controls at certain internal borders, only in exceptional circumstances that endanger the overall functioning of the Schengen area. The Schengen Borders Code also provides that Member States may introduce temporary border controls to respond to a serious threat to public order or internal security. Currently, the Schengen Borders Code is undergoing a process of modification and updating at the EU level.

On February 7, 2024, the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the EU and European Parliament negotiators reached a provisional agreement on amending the EU legislation that establishes the rules for the operation of the Schengen area at both external and internal borders. The update of the Schengen Borders Code notably clarifies the rules related to the reintroduction of border controls, ensuring that they remain a measure of last resort, provides solutions for situations where migrants are used as a political weapon and offers the possibility to introduce common measures to harmonize travel restrictions in the event of a public health emergency.

Currently, 27 European states are full members of the Schengen Agreement, while Romania and Bulgaria are member states with partial rights. It is estimated that Europeans make 1.25 billion trips within the Schengen area every year, which also brings considerable benefits to tourism and the cultural sector.