An EU member since 2013, Croatia has long been aiming to join the Schengen zone, a common area of travel without border protocol enjoyed by 22 of the 27 EU countries, plus EFTA states including Switzerland.
Travelling within the Schengen zone means that visitors arriving from a fellow Schengen country do not have to show their passports, and can walk through airports and over border crossings as if they were still in their own country. This facility would obviously benefit a nation reliant on tourism, such as Croatia.
The debate on Croatia joining the Schengen zone has been going on for some time, although now it is commonly acknowledged that accession should happen at some point next year, 2023.
The matter of accession should be decided by the EU’s Justice and Home Affairs Council when it meets on December 9. The country currently holding the rotating presidency of the EU Council, the Czech Republic, is said to be keen to make Schengen accession a priority. Romania and Bulgaria are also looking to join.
In the last few days, support for the Croatia bid has come from an unlikely source: Slovenia. Although the two members of former Yugoslavia have had their own disputes in the recent past, the Slovenian government has just written an official statement confirming its backing for Croatia’s accession on January 1, 2023.
German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, also expressed his support for Schengen expansion at the summit of EU leaders in Prague last month.