Bulgaria and Romania have been given the green light to fully join the border-free Schengen area, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Friday (22 November).
Romanian senators on Wednesday gave final approval to a bill authorising contracts to purchase the world’s most advanced fighter aircraft, the F-35, with the first delivery expected in 2031.
Romania’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday welcomed Norway’s initiative to help the country acquire an advanced Patriot surface-to-air missile system, following its recent supply of a similar system to Ukraine.
By Martin Banks The Schengen rules will apply in both Member States including on issuing Schengen visas and controls at the internal air and sea borders will be lifted.
The Spanish Presidency of the Council of the EU succeeded late on Saturday 30 December 2023, one day before it passes the baton to Belgium, to move on with the Schengen enlargement with Bulgaria and Romania, after 12 years of negotiations.
Romania and Bulgaria have reached an agreement with Austria to join the European Schengen area of free movement by sea and air in March 2024, the Romanian government said Wednesday (27 December).
The Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the chargé d’affaires of Belarus in Romania was summoned to the ministry after Belarusian leader Aleksandr Lukashenko said on September 17 that the US was pushing Europe into a military confrontation with Russia on the territory of Ukraine and that other states, including Romania, would be directly involved.
Romania, which is home to an estimated 6,000 brown bears, the largest population in the EU, has launched a project to find the real population of these bears, using EU cohesion funds.
Romania has officially requested an extension of the evaluation period for the recovery and resilience plan after it received wide-ranging criticism from the European Commission.
