Law enforcement officers conduct random inspections on border-crossing vehicles in Haskovo Bulgaria Jan 1 2025 Rom

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.

Ceremonies were held just before midnight Tuesday to mark Bulgaria's and Romania's 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.

Residents from Romania and Bulgaria can now travel freely in the Schengen area. The combined 25 million residents of Bulgaria and Romania now join nearly 450 million EU citizens who already have the freedom to move around the Schengen zone, after land border checks were officially lifted.

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

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.

After 13 years of negotiations and procedures, Romania and Bulgaria officially joined the Schengen area on January 1, Azernews </strong

Full membership for Romania and Bulgaria made possible after Austria lifted its veto - Both countries expect to benefit economically and their GDP to increase by at least 1%