Romania and Bulgaria joined the Schengen area on Easter Sunday. This means that checks on persons at internal air and sea borders, i.e. at airports and seaports, will no longer apply for the time being. The EU countries had already agreed on this step at the end of December. A decision on the lifting of controls at land borders will follow at a later date. The Schengen area now includes 25 of the 27 EU member states as well as Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland.