EU approves Croatia joining visa-free Schengen area on Jan 1; Bulgaria, Romania blocked

ZAGREB – Croatia won the European Union’s endorsement to join the region’s visa-free travel area while Bulgaria and Romania’s bid was delayed. 

EU home affairs ministers agreed on Thursday in Brussels that Croatia should be allowed to join the so-called Schengen area on Jan 1. This means the country will no longer be bound by the bloc’s internal border controls and paves the way for easier travel.

Decisions on enlarging Schengen have to be taken unanimously, but Austria applied its veto, fearing that having Bulgaria and Romania in the Schengen area would increase already high inflows of asylum-seekers.

The Netherlands was equally intent on keeping Bulgaria out, which impacted Romania’s twinned bid.

“Despite the disappointment that we will see from these two member states, we have a firm decision and readiness to continue” to get into Schengen, said Bulgarian Interior Minister Ivan Demerdzhiev.

“I’m also disappointed” by the outcome for Bulgaria and Romania, EU home affairs commissioner Ylva Johansson told journalists.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has called for expanding Schengen to include Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria, saying that it would make Europe safer and more prosperous.

Croatia’s accession from Jan 1 will make it the 27th member of Schengen, which would then comprise 23 of the EU’s 27 countries, plus Switzerland, Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland.

Romania and Bulgaria have long met the technical criteria to join the Schengen area, but some EU members have expressed reluctance over concerns about the countries’ ability to curb graft and uphold the rule of law. 

The pair joined the EU in 2007 but failed to win a political vote to become members of the Schengen area four years later due to corruption concerns. Now, they are striving to show they can accommodate an influx of refugees from the war in Ukraine while still protecting the EU’s external borders.  

Austria earlier said a decision to include the two countries should be delayed until member states comply with rules requiring the registration of asylum seekers. Of 100,000 people detained this year for illegally crossing Austria’s eastern border, 75,000 had already crossed Schengen-area states without a prior registration.

“We need to first markedly improve the system, and then we can integrate these countries,” Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told reporters in Brussels before the meeting.

Their rejection comes even after the European Commission cleared the two members states after a renewed assessment, saying they have fulfilled conditions to enter the visa-free travel regime and should benefit from participation “without any further delay.”

Politicians from the two neighbouring countries warned that the decision may fuel anti-European sentiment among their citizens. Bloomberg, AFP