Although his “Air Schengen” proposal has granted Bulgaria and Romania partial accession to the Schengen Zone from March this year, land border accession may not happen any time soon after Austria’s Interior Minister, Gerhard Karner, has said his country continues to maintain its veto when it comes to the land border issue.

Karner’s comments came during an interview with the daily Presse, according to Kronika.

In addition, he considered further expansion of passport-free travel zone, in terms of land borders, inappropriate at this stage.

However, the Austrian Minister said that the matter goes beyond these two countries, referring to the migration situation, which was among the main concerns cited by Vienna that led to the opposition to further expansion of the Schengen Area to include Bulgaria and Romania for many years now.

He said that he doesn’t give marks to Bulgaria and Romania, stressing that he is campaigning for a functioning system at the European level, highlighting the importance of the implementation of the new asylum and migration pact.

The Interior Minister mentioned that Austria, together with the two Balkan countries, has taken a step forward with the Schengen connection by air and sea, stressing that it is needed to move forward step by step.

Karner said that it’s not for Austria to set a schedule or adopt any regulations, but it is the Commission’s job to ensure that the entire system works.

Austria blocked Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to Schengen in December 2022 over irregular migration concerns. However, in December last year, Sofia Bucharest and Vienna reached an agreement on the latter’s proposal called “Air Schengen”, which consists of four conditions for the accession of these two countries to the Schengen Zone.