An analysis by Mihai Petre, Director, International Trade, EY Romania and Cosmin Dincă, Manager, International Trade, EY Romania

Romania and Bulgaria have successfully completed the Schengen evaluation process provided for in their Accession Treaties, taking all necessary measures to ensure the application of the relevant parts of the Schengen acquis.

With Romania's full entry into Schengen, waiting times at the borders with Hungary and Bulgaria will be eliminated. Currently, the average waiting time for trucks at the two borders is 180 minutes.

Being part of an area without internal border controls means that countries
do not control their internal borders except in cases of specific threats;
have harmonized controls at their external borders, based on clearly defined criteria.

As a result, in view of the free crossing of borders, both carriers and economic operators will have to pay much more attention to their other obligations, depending on the type of goods transported, which require certain formalities in advance. For example:

• veterinary health checks - obtaining the necessary visas in the TRACES system (in the case of food);
• ITU code generated by the RO e-transport system for intra-Union transport;
• Intra-Union transfer licenses for dual-use products (i.e. that can have both a civilian and military use).

Recall that obligations such as those in the above example can create inconveniences, if not carried out on time, such as blocking of means of transport/goods at the point of destination in the absence of the permits taken from the borders, contraventions and delays in the logistic supply chain, even going as far as confiscation of goods. By comparison, today such shortcomings can be identified before the border crossing by the authorities (e.g. customs etc.), avoiding potentially more serious implications after the border crossing. In the future, this "help" will no longer be available.

In conclusion, our recommendation to carriers/ economic operators would be to re-evaluate their obligations at the border from a Schengen perspective and to update the necessary procedures on the flow in this respect, so that from January 1, 2025, they can fully benefit from the Schengen area.