This Thursday, December 8, the Council of the EU confirmed Zagreb’s accession to the European freedom of movement area from January 1, 2023. Bucharest and Sofia, on the other hand, have not yet been admitted. Especially because of the resistance of Austria.
As remembered from the beginning Politically, “For Croatia, this decision represents the second big step in this year 2022 towards European integration”.
In July, Zagreb had indeed been given the green light to join the eurozone in 2023, and now the Balkan country has been confirmed to join the Schengen area again, still for the start of the eurozone next year.
Croatia thus becomes the twenty-seventh member to join this free movement area, which notably allows movement without border controls.
Part postponed for Romania and Bulgaria?
The Schengen area currently includes 22 EU countries and four non-EU countries (Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein). Since the European Union has 27 members, apart from Croatia there are 4 community countries that are not part of Schengen: Ireland, Cyprus, Romania and Bulgaria.
The latter two have long been on the waiting list and could have been given the green light by the EU Council at the same time as Croatia. This is just a postponement, assured Vit Rakusan, interior minister of the Czech Republic, the country that currently holds the rotating EU presidency.
“My colleagues and I will continue to work hard to ensure that we can include Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen family in the near future,” said the politician.
Austria and the Netherlands opposed it
But, as noted by the European media, this decision to exclude Sofia and Bucharest was not made without controversy.
“The original plan was to admit Croatia along with Romania and Bulgaria as part of a global deal, Politico notes, but that program fell through after Austria threatened to veto Romania and Bulgaria’s accession, arguing that those countries couldn’t make it to cope with an increase in the number of migrants coming to the EU.”
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Indeed, according to European sources, it would have been the opposition in Vienna that would have blocked the two countries’ accession, probably with support from the Netherlands.
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VIDEO – Croatia’s expected accession to the Schengen area worries its neighbors in the former Yugoslavia