Austria, which has led opposition within the European Union to Romania and Bulgaria joining the Schengen open-travel area, said on December 11 that it was willing to relent but only on plane travel and in exchange for tighter security at the EU's external border. At a meeting of the bloc's interior ministers a year ago, at which the two eastern European countries had hoped to get the green light to join the world's largest free-travel area, Austria said illegal immigration was still too high and Romania and Bulgaria needed to do more to prevent it before joining.
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