Debate: Full application of the provisions of the Schengen acquis in Croatia
Date: WEDNESDAY, 9 NOVEMBER 2022
Speaker: Margaritis Schinas
Language: EN

Back in 2019, the Commission concluded that Croatia meets all conditions to apply the Schengen  What will happen when Croatia joins? And when will that happen? Croatia will join the largest area of borderless travel in the world. The people of Croatia will enjoy to the full the possibility to travel within the Schengen Area with no internal border checks as 420 million Europeans already do. Croatia has delivered on external border management. Croatia has delivered on returns and on visa policy, but also on police cooperation against the trafficking of firearms and by updating information systems. Once Croatia joins, it will have access to the Schengen Information System, allowing information exchange to fight crime, to fight against terrorism, and to monitor migration efficiently. Croatia has also made a lot of efforts on data protection and fundamental rights. It was the first Member State to set up an independent monitoring mechanism of fundamental rights, something that we proposed to all Member States within our proposal for a new EU package for migration and asylum. And we very much welcome Croatia’s extension of the monitoring mechanism announced last week. And this was not an extension for yet another year, but for automatic renewal every 18 months until the screening regulation is adopted and implemented at the European Union level. And we do welcome the improvements to the mechanism: by taking up all the recommendations of the advisory board, including the possibility of unannounced visits to the green border, this mechanism that Croatia accepted and is now implementing could become a model, an example for all Member States, because we can only protect EU security and the EU border whilst we are able to uphold the EU values that bind us together. On this difficult journey to Schengen, Croatia did not travel alone. Every step of the way, the Commission and our Member States were there to support. To boost border controls we supported Croatia through the Internal Security Fund and the emergency assistance. After evaluations and on—site visits, based on the Commission proposal the Council issued nearly 300 recommendations, and Croatia has carried out all these recommendations! So let these be the fundamentals of confidence and trust of Member States and of EU citizens – of all of us. A trust in the belief that Croatia is ready, that we can count on our Croatian friends to protect people, to protect the border, and to protect European values. Honourable Members, together with my colleague, Vice-President Šuica, we call on all of you tomorrow to vote resoundingly in favour of this report, and by your vote to send a strong message to the Council that this is now the time to welcome Croatia to Schengen. This is now the time to enlarge the Schengen Area, and not only to Croatia, but also to Romania and Bulgaria, who have also met the conditions for full Schengen membership already since 2011 and who recently also volunteered: they agreed on a voluntary basis to a new fact—finding mission precisely to reassure Member States that both countries, Romania and Bulgaria, are still applying the Schengen  Honourable Members, Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria have taken massive strides and they have won our trust, and the Schengen they will join will be a stronger Schengen compared to 2011, when this process started. A Schengen that was able to survive big, huge existential threats: the refugee crisis; terrorist attacks; the COVID pandemic. A Schengen that remains the jewel in Europe’s crown. A stronger Schengen also due to the new rules for governance which have been included in the new Schengen border codes – one will be in place soon, we hope. And thanks also to the best border—management technology – the best in the world – that we are now implementing. All but one of the Member States are entitled to join the Schengen Area once they fulfil the conditions. It is their right. It is their right to be members of this Schengen borderless area. And the longer we delay, the more we risk distancing not governments, but citizens from the European project. Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria have done what it takes. The European Union must now also do what it takes and simply say just one word: welcome.