European Union will authorize Croatia’s entry into the Schengen area

The states of the European Union approved the entry of Croatia to the Schengen area, the largest travel zone without border controls in the world, composed of 26 countries of which 22 belong to the EU. As of January 2023, Croatia, which has been part of the European Union since 2013, will become the 27th country to join this circuit that abolishes identity checks for Croatian citizens. “The Schengen area is growing for the first time in more than a decade thanks to the Czech Republic’s presidency of the Council of the European Union. The ministers approved Croatia’s membership as of January 1, 2023!”  In turn, it was determined that in the first month of next year Croatia will join the list of the 19 European states that have the euro as their official currency. However, Romania and Bulgaria did not receive the same good news as Austria and the Netherlands voted against their inclusion in the Schengen area. Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer argued that his country would prefer to postpone the decision until autumn 2023 due to the large turnout of irregular immigration. In this regard, the Dutch Minister of Migration, Eric van der Burg, said that the Netherlands is concerned about “corruption and human rights” in Bulgaria.Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament, congratulated Croatia but was “very disappointed” by the refusal of Sofia and Bucharest: “Very disappointed with the decision to delay the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to #Schengen. Both countries are prepared and deserving of this step. On behalf of @Europarl_EN I call on the @ConsejoEUC to act and ensure that a compromise is found. Only then will we be truly united,” he said through his Twitter account. Meanwhile, the Spanish Interior Minister, Fernando Grande-Marlaska, did not hide his dissatisfaction and said: “They have been complying with all the requirements for eleven years, within all the procedures, passing all the evaluations and with the approval of the Commission and 25 of the 27 countries. If there is something that is one of the values that unites us all, it is respect for procedures, that when the objectives are met, it is obviously approved as appropriate.”

Original source in Spanish

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