Croatia will enter the Schengen area of free movement, of which Switzerland is a part, next January. Member states on Thursday approved its membership, but rejected those of Romania and Bulgaria.
“Council decision adopted. It is now formally confirmed, Croatia will join the Schengen area as of January 1, 2023”, tweeted the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU.
With this unanimous green light from the interior ministers meeting in Brussels, Croatia becomes the 27th member of this vast area within which more than 400 million people can travel freely, without internal border controls. This country of 3.9 million inhabitants, member of the EU since 2013, will also join the euro zone next January.
Austrian and Dutch vet
On the other hand, Romania and Bulgaria will still have to wait: their candidacies came up once morest the vetoes of Austria – and the Netherlands for Bulgaria, causing “a certain bitterness in the room”, according to a diplomatic source.
“I will vote today once morest the enlargement of Schengen to Romania and Bulgaria,” Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner announced on arriving at the meeting.
Austria, which is facing a sharp increase in asylum applications, feared that the lifting of border controls with these two countries would further increase the arrival of migrants.
In addition to Austria, another Member State, the Netherlands, has come out once morest Bulgaria’s entry into Schengen. Dutch Minister for Migration, Eric van der Burg, explained that his country had concerns regarding “corruption and human rights” in this country and asked for a new report from the Commission on these points. “For us it’s a yes to Croatia and a yes to Romania,” he said.
However, the case of Romania (19 million inhabitants) is procedurally linked to that of Bulgaria (6.5 million). The two former communist countries entered the EU in 2007 and have been knocking on Schengen’s door for more than ten years.
Switzerland in favor of the three
Supported by a majority of Member States, the European Commission and Parliament have long been calling for these three countries to be included in this zone which includes 22 countries of the European Union plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. .
As an associated member of the Schengen area, the Confederation might not participate in Thursday’s decision. Present at the meeting, the Secretary of State for Migration Christine Schraner Burgener indicated that Switzerland “has always been very favorable” to the inclusion of the three countries. The Federal Council will probably decide at its meeting on December 21.
A boost to tourism
One of the effects of Zagreb’s membership will be to eliminate queues of vehicles at the country’s borders and further encourage tourism.
Switzerland will only be affected in the area of air traffic. Travelers to and from this country will no longer be subject to border controls.
In return, the Schengen member countries must assume rigorous control of the external borders of this area, and commit to police cooperation to fight once morest organized crime or terrorism.
Master the borders
The question of the enlargement of the Schengen area has returned to the table as irregular arrivals at the EU’s external borders are on the rise, following having seen a drop during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The surge is particularly marked by the Western Balkan route, where some 139,500 irregular entries into the EU have been detected since January, according to Frontex. A figure far from the 764,000 entries recorded in 2015, at the time of the refugee crisis, but which does not take into account the Ukrainian exodus.
Unlike Austria, France believed that the integration of Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria into Schengen would “better respect the control of our borders” and limit arrivals via the Balkan route.
These three countries have “made a lot of effort to control their borders”, said French Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin, on the same line as his German counterpart Nancy Faeser.
This article has been published automatically. Sources: ats / afp
