Translation with deepl:
This is no joke! Two German tourists got a criminal record because they thought Romania had joined the Schengen Area! It all started after the surveillance cameras located near the border line, on the Garbolcz road (Hungary), at the S.P.F. Petea headquarters, around 17.40, issued an alert and transmitted images of two people riding their bicycles from Romania to Hungary, according to PresaSM information.
The images transmitted by the surveillance cameras showed the two people riding around the concrete obstacle and the barrier on the road, illegally crossing the border from Romania into Hungary. The intervention team of S.P.F. Petea was alerted and went to the scene, but the two persons could not be identified and detained.
At the same time, the Hungarian border authorities were informed and sent a team to the area, thus managing to apprehend the two persons. During the border meeting that took place at the S.P.F. Petea headquarters, in order to jointly investigate the border event, the Hungarian border authorities informed that the two persons are German citizens.
According to PresaSM data, in front of the Hungarian authorities, the persons in question declared that they were on holiday and were travelling on bicycles guided by the GPS application of their mobile phones. This is how they arrived in the town of Petea, where the app showed them that there was a border crossing point, as they intended to cross the border from Romania into Hungary. Being used to travelling freely through Europe, without customs controls between countries, they did not know that they could not cross the border there.
I thought any EU member can cross inner-EU borders freely? Seems like i am the same clueless german as the guys in the article🫠
I think it’s not “freely”, as in someone has to check your ID. I could be wrong tho.
Checks are optional within Schengen, no one has to but can e.g. when Austria wants to check for illegal immigrants and sets up checkpoints at the border. Border crossings are often just rural roads where the road surface suddenly looks different and there are slightly different looking signs. On some there are still old customs buildings, especially crossings within cities but also no staff.
Even crossing out of the EU into Switzerland (Schengen), I have never been asked for documents. I have seen customs buildings but it’s an open crossing and no one even standing there to check for anything when leaving the EU.
Yes but Romania is not in Schengen
I thought any EU member can cross inner-EU borders freely?
A citizen of an EU member has the right to freedom of movement of labor in the EU. However, people are required to show identity documents at the border and be checked if the member state is not in the Schengen Area.
Presently, Romania is not in the Schengen Area (and this is, in fact, a very politically-contentious situation in Romania, as the European Commission considers them to have fulfilled the requirements for over a decade, but they have been repeatedly blocked by other member states from entering, most-recently by Austria).
Same thing with the UK back when they were still members. Part of the EU, not part of Schengen, so you couldn’t just walk off the eurostar without showing your passport. More checks when flying too, had to stay in the non-schengen zone of airports, etc.
Obviously, it’s politically contentious in Romania, but I think most Europeans, just like these Germans, think it’s stupid and counter-intuitive that Romania’s not part of Schengen yet.
Without googling, I assume it’s because somewhere like the Netherlands or Austria needs to placate the far right with symbolic nonsense, that causes Romanians unnecessary delays, and makes them feel like second tier Europeans.
For anyone interested, this seems to be the crossing in question: https://maps.app.goo.gl/8zYiW5s877R9nSuG8
I’m curious how they got into Romania in the first place. Did they not notice the border on their way there either?
Crossing unmanned border checkpoints when hiking or cycling is pretty common and was generally tolerated, at least in pre-Schengen Europe. There’s also loads of abandonded border crossings similar to this, even between Schengen states.
I’m also not so sure wether they were actually unaware of the rules - it looks like the next border crossing is 20km away, maybe they just didn’t want to take the detour.
It takes a bit more than that to stop a German on a bike
I’m curious how they got into Romania in the first place. Did they not notice the border on their way there either?
Why would there be an issue getting into Romania? The article doesnt mention if they were tourists staying in Romania or tourists staying in Hungary, but nevertheless if I would be at a border and a border guard asks for my ID I would just show it to them, especially at the airport. But if I am on a bike-ride and saw a border like this, within the EU, I would think nothing of it and go around it. I would never dream that inside of the EU crossing an unmanned border would be an issue
Because Romania is in the EU but it is not in Schengen, so you have to show your ID at the border EVERY TIME you enter/exit the country, same with Bulgaria.
If they would have crossed from Hungary to Austria, it would be no problem since both countries are in Schengen and no ID is necessary.
For this whole drama, the tourists can thank the Austrian gov since they vetoed Romania’s entry into Schengen last year even tho they fulfill all the requirements to do so.
Yeah I understand what the problem is, that’s not what I meant. What I meant is that as a tourist in an inside-EU-country I would not know that this is the case
I would also not conclude that I’m outside of the Schengen region when I have to show my ID at the border. It’s really not unusual to have border-police check your ID inside the Schengen region, in fact its done quite a lot in some areas (in Germany for example when crossing from Austria to Bavaria). So I can totally understand why they just biked around it and didnt think further of it.
So they probably got into Romania like everyone else, by showing their ID at the Airport, but they didnt conclude from this that they are outside of the Schengen region.
It might be that English is not my first language but what I understand from your comment is that tourists should be ok for not knowing the laws when travelling between EU countries?
It’s true, many people from the west don’t think about Schengen, they take it for granted but businesses and to some extent normal people from Romania/Bulgaria suffer from not being in Schengen and nobody seems to slap Austria for this current situation.
From your comments I assume that you are Romanian? In that case I can see why you are surprised that tourists dont know about Romania not being part of Schengen.
For me, a German, I can only tell you that for us everything looks like EU and Schengen are an integral part.
At the Airport, we have two Gates:
“EU-Destination” and “Non-EU-Destination”. “EU-Destination” Gates are the Schengen gates, but they are just named “EU-Destination”. To be honest, I don’t know which gates to take when travelling to Romania. Especially as a German, we are surrounded by EU and Schengen countries, there is no border that has a non-Schengen border crossing. I live very close to the border and I cross it weekly. For me, an EU border is nothing I ever think about not crossing. Because of all of that, when I travel inside the EU, I never check about border rules. It’s for me one of the great benefits of the EU, that I can just go wherever I want to go without a single care. I hated COVID because of all the different laws while travelling.Only from your post, I now know that Romania is not part of Schengen. If I would book a vacation in Romania, I would just google “Is Romania part of EU”, it shows me a few articles about Romania joining EU in 2007 and I would not look further into it. I think it’s reasonable to assume that Romania is part of Schengen because of it being in EU.
But I totally agree with you. It sucks that you are denied Schengen status over and over again. It generally sucks that nobody slaps anyone in foreign politics for their racist remarks in EU. Fuck Austria for denying you Schengen status. I hope you’ll get it soon!
Yes your assumption is right. However, I kinda know the story from both sides, Schengen and non-Schengen because I have a dual-citizenship(Gude 😊). Maybe that’s why for me is “not normal” and I pay attention to this but yes, I know what you mean with the airports.
TIL Romania is not in Schengen
I wonder if/when humans will realize that they all live on one planet together
