Romania and Bulgaria scrapped land border controls to become full members of the European Union's Schengen free-travel area on Wednesday, joining an expanded bloc of countries whose residents can travel without passport checks.

Ceremonies were held just before midnight Tuesday to mark Bulgaria's and Romania's full membership in Europe's Schengen area, the culmination of years of negotiations by the Eastern European countries to join the ID check-free travel zone.

The Bulgarian border

Two EU nations, Romania and Bulgaria, are eliminating land border controls to the rest of the bloc after Austria dropped its veto last month. All EU countries except Cyprus and Ireland are now in the Schengen zone.