Austria changes mind about letting Romania and Bulgaria into border-free zone

Austrian government made a big u-turn in its stance about Romania and Bulgaria joining the border-free zone (which is pretty cool for travelers and businesses)

The two east-european countries got partial access to Schengen back in spring - but only for planes and ships; now its time to open land borders too. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said they can move forward with this plan at the EU meeting next thursday

Migration numbers played a key role in changing Austrias mind: border patrol caught way less people trying to cross illegally from Hungary. The stats are quite clear:

• around 70k people stopped near Hungarian border oct 23
• only 4k people caught in same time oct 24

The whole thing started cause Austria was super-worried about illegal crossings - they blocked Romania and Bulgaria from joining fully until they fixed this issue. Now that theres proof the situation got better‚ Austrian officials dont see any problems anymore

Both Romania and Bulgaria have been waiting for this moment since joining EU; theyʼre already part of important groups like NATO and the European Union. The final green-light should happen at a big meeting of EU interior ministers right before winter holidays