Evaluation of the Economic Impact of a Country`s Accession to the Schengen Area – the Case of Bulgaria

The Schengen agreement further strengthens the implementation of the principles of free movement of goods, services and persons provided in the EU and beyond. This intergovernmental agreement offers a lot of challenges that need to be examined for building understanding of the complexity of consequences of a large magnitude. The aim of this study is to develop and apply a comprehensive methodology in order to evaluate the economic effects of a country`s accession to the Schengen area. The study explores different types of economic implications, including direct, potential, ecological and fiscal effects. Moreover, the universality of the methodology provides for its comprehensive and wide applicability under different context and scenarios of abolition of border control. The developed methodology has been applied in order to evaluate the economic impact on Bulgaria from the country`s accession to the Schengen area.