The European Commission called on Wednesday for Romanian, Bulgarian and Croatian citizens to be able to travel freely without passports across Europe, which would expand the so-called Schengen area with no border checks to 29 countries.
The EU executive asked the European Council, the grouping of the European Union's 27 governments, to take the necessary decisions to admit the three countries to the passport-free zone that some 420 million Europeans already enjoy.
Bulgaria and Romania completed the evaluation process in 2011, but EU governments have held off lifting internal border controls for them for more than 11 years over concerns related to corruption and organised crime.
"While the three countries are already bound in part by the Schengen rules, the internal border controls with these member states have not been lifted and therefore they do not enjoy the full benefits that come with being part of the Schengen area," the Commission said in a statement.
"Becoming fully part of the Schengen area is a requirement for these member states and they should therefore be permitted to do so given that they fulfil the conditions," it said.
The Council confirmed in December 2021 that Croatia, which became an EU member in 2013, had fulfilled the conditions to join the Schengen area which now includes Norway, Lichtenstein, Switzerland, Iceland and all European Union countries except Cyprus, Ireland, Bulgaria, Romania and Croatia.
To join the Schengen agreement, which dates back to 1985, a country must control its external border on behalf of other Schengen members, because once a person enters the area, it can move across all the countries without any checks.
All Schengen countries therefore have the same criteria to issue visas to visitors and their police forces cooperate.
The Schengen countries observe the same data protection standards and use the Schengen Information System to share information about missing or wanted persons, illegal entrants, stolen vehicles and lost or stolen identity documents.
EU governments are expected to vote on the participation of the three countries at a meeting of ministers on Dec. 8.
(Reporting by Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Alex Richardson and Mark Potter)
