ZAGREB, September 24, 2019 – The European Commission indirectly confirmed on Tuesday that a report on Croatia’s meeting criteria for accession to the Schengen area of passport-free travel had not been completed yet but noted that work on the report was progressing well.
The Commission’s joint work on successfully completing, as soon as possible, the evaluation for Schengen Area membership, is progressing well. It is the EC’s position that Croatia should join the Schengen Area as a full member as soon as it meets the necessary criteria and as soon as possible, the EC said.
EC officials would not say when European commissioners could have the report on whether Croatia meets the Schengen Area membership standards on their agenda.
For a country to join the area of border control-free movement it is not enough to have a positive evaluation from the EC, which testifies only to the country’s technical readiness. The final decision is made by member-countries.
Bulgaria and Romania have had the EC’s positive opinion for years but are still not in the area because several member-countries oppose it.
More news about the passport-free area can be found in the Politics section.
