Romania - Bulgaria border region

• Author: Viaggi, Raffaele; Rubio, Jean; Peyrony, Jean
• Pages: 51-52

 ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF BORDER-RELATED MEASURE S TAKEN BY MS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

 CASE STUDIES

51

Romania – Bulgaria border

region

Border controls and

cross-border mobility

(Reduced crossings

points, type of controls,

congestion, CB public

transport…)

Mid-March, Bulgaria closed its borders, meaning that anybody who

was going to Romania and back had to complete a mandatory 14

days quarantine. After a couple of days, Romania followed suit.

Only in mid-June the state of emergency was stopped, and the

border opened again. Dedicated border crossings were introduced

to different types of traffic.

CB coordination and di-

alogue during the crisis

and the de-contain-

ment phase

(Evolution in border con-

trols and effects of the lift-

ing of border controls)

Every decisi on was exclusively made at a national level and the

local level was not involved at all. The decisions were made ab-

ruptly without a proper consultation procedure.

Impact on cross-bor-

der workers

(Remote working and tax-

ation, social security, un-

employment…)

The movement of cross-border workers was organised shortly after

the introduction of the border closure. What was more important

for this border section is the large number of employees working

abroad, primarily in Western Europe. A huge amo unt of them de-

cided to travel home at the beginning o f the pandemic hoping for

the situation to resolve quickly but then found themselves in a pre-

carious situation the longer the pandemic lasted.

Impact on the users of

cross-border public

services (CPS)

(healthcare, information

to citizens, education…)

The level and number of real cross-border public services are rela-

tively low in this border section and thus the impact was not meas-

urable.