Romania's accession to Schengen on March 31, 2024, represents a historic moment for our country, practically fulfilling an almost 14-year-old goal, when the conditions for entering the Schengen Area were met, but the effective entry was systematically blocked .
Romania's accession to Schengen from March 31, 2024, at 00:00, will also bring a series of very important changes regarding the rules in airports, so the MAI has decided to explain very clearly what will happen from this night in all airports from the country, this is what Bogdan Despescu, general police chief and secretary of state within the MAI, says.
Elimination of passport control counters
Through Romania's accession to the Schengen area, citizens traveling to and from the Schengen states will no longer be subject to systematic control at the border point, as happened until today. With the entry into the Schengen area and the lifting of controls at air and sea level, citizens, after passing the security control, will move towards the boarding gates.
Throughout this area, they will circulate without systematic control, as I mentioned. So, those counters that are still working today and will be working tomorrow, starting Sunday at zero o'clock, will be lifted, and my colleagues, the Police, the Border Police and the Gendarmerie will act without a specific designated place. There will be some work points, but these work points have a different role than what it is today. So, we are ready, we have carried out a wide range of activities to get here and I think it is a very important moment for all citizens of Romania.
Random, unexpected controls in Romanian airports
Citizens traveling to the Schengen states or coming from the Schengen states do not have any additional obligations. They are required to reserve a seat on the plane, purchase their ticket and, of course, be in possession of a legal travel document.
After they pass the security control they will circulate without any problem in the whole space to the boarding gate, but in this space my colleagues will be able to check randomly, according to the data from the risk analyses, according to suspicions or signals , any person and will be subject to a control as today, as until today, respectively will request an identity document, an identity document that will establish whether the person is the one in that document, that it is an identity or travel document, and, depending on the result of the check, if there are no problems, it will continue the journey as before.
Conditions for the travel of minors in Schengen
There are no new rules regarding the movement of minors, they are the same rules as before, the same rules we all followed last year, we are talking about a companion who has the right to travel with the minor. We are talking about a valid travel document for the minor and, of course, there should not be a situation that creates a risk for the minor.
Last year, at the level of the Romanian Police, more than 14.500 cases of disappearances were reported, of which 9500 were minors. Following the activities, the situation was clarified, a very, very large number, approximately 90 or so percent of them, and that is why we want to take further measures, to check using the same working procedure as before, with the mention that , this time, there will not be a check at the counter, there will be a check after the security check, after passing this security check in the entire area of the presence of passengers accompanied by minors up to the boarding gates.
