There are many ways of looking at Croatia and its progress as a young democracy. Today was the latest milestone.
One of them is in milestones. There have been quite a few over the last decade or so.
2009 – Croatia joins NATO.
2013 – Croatia joins the European Union.
2022 – Croatia gets visa-free travel to the United States.
2022 – Croatia signs double taxation agreement with the United States.
2022 – The Peljesac Bridge opens, connecting Croatia into one contiguous country.
2023 – January 1 – Croatia joins the Euro.
2023 – January 1 – Croatia joins the Schengen Zone.
While land borders to neighbouring countries such as Hungary and Slovenia were abolished at the beginning of the year, passport control remained in place in Croatian airports for EU flights until today, March 26.
Those controls have now been abolished, and Croatia has become the 27th full Schengen Zone member – the others are the 23 EU countries, plus Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Only four EU countries are now outside the Schengen Zone – Bulgaria, Romania, Cyprus and Ireland.
The power of the Croatian passport is certainly rising, and this post-Brexit Brit can only look on with envy.
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