Passport checks for people flying to and from Bulgaria and Romania will be abolished at Swiss airports, https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics reads. The Swiss government on Wednesday agreed to follow a recent European Union decision to lift internal border controls at air and maritime borders with Bulgaria and Romania. On December 30, the Council of the EU unanimously decided to lift checks on people at the internal air and sea borders with Bulgaria and Romania, as from March 31, 2024. Controls will remain in place at land borders but the council has hinted that a future decision will be taken on the matter. Switzerland, a member of Europe’s passport-free Schengen Zone, is following this decision. Romania and Bulgaria will also be able to issue their own Schengen visas themselves, the government said in a statement on Wednesday. The experience of Croatia's accession to the Schengen area on January 1, 2023 has shown that a decision of this kind does not lead to a marked increase in immigration, non-EU member Switzerland said. Existing instruments, including preventive measures, are used to combat illegal migratory flows and crime. The EU's decision follows 12 years of negotiations. Austria imposed its veto last year to protest against too many irregular migrants arriving on its territory, before agreeing to lift it in exchange for guarantees. Sofia and Bucharest have agreed to step up their fight against irregular migration. Bulgaria and Romania, members of the EU since 2007, have also undertaken to fully apply European law, which stipulates that asylum applications must be processed in the migrants' country of arrival. The Schengen area, created in 1985, allows over 400 million people to travel freely in Europe without internal border controls. It includes 23 of the 27 EU member states as well as their associated neighbours Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
Different Beauty, a recently opened exhibition of works by Czech photographer David Těšínský, offers a glimpse into everyday life in the war-torn region of Donbas in 2017. The photos were taken within the span of only a few days, as Těšínský traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the lives of women impacted by war. In […]
Different Beauty, a recently opened exhibition of works by Czech photographer David Těšínský, offers a glimpse into everyday life in the war-torn region of Donbas in 2017. The photos were taken within the span of only a few days, as Těšínský traveled to eastern Ukraine to document the lives of women impacted by war. In […]
Roughly 70% of Romanians are “very” or “moderately” concerned about how AI accesses and uses their data, according to the latest survey conducted by RoCoach in partnership with Novel Research between May and June 2025. Distrust in automated decision-making and the demand for regulation are becoming more pronounced, as Romania rolls out major digitalization projects […]
The Armenian Street Festival returns for a 9th edition between August 1 and 3, 2025, in the “Dimitrie Brândză” Botanical Garden in Bucharest. The festival brings into focus the living heritage of the Armenian community in Romania and the diaspora. According to the organizers, this year’s edition aims to strengthen the Bucharest–Chișinău–Yerevan cultural axis, articulated […]
The Romanian mergers and acquisitions market registered a total of 122 announced transactions in the first half of 2025, with a value exceeding EUR 2.7 billion, marking a slight increase of 6% in volume and 4% in value compared to the same period last year, according to an analysis by George Ureche, partner at PwC Romania. […]
Arrivals recorded in tourist accommodation structures in Romania, including apartments and rental rooms, in the first five months totaled 4.49 million people, up 0.8% compared to the same period in 2024, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics. Of the total number of arrivals during this period, Romanian tourists accounted for 80.8% and […]
