Croatia obtained, Thursday, December 8, the green light to enter the Schengen area from January 1, 2023. The European Ministers of the Interior meeting in Brussels approved its accession. Until now this zone included 26 countries: 22 countries of the European Union (EU), Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, and membership must be decided unanimously by the Member States.
The start of 2023 is going to be busy for Croatia. The country of 3.9 million inhabitants, a member of the European Union since 2013, must also join the euro zone next January.
Requests from Bulgaria and Romania to join the Schengen area have been rejected. the case of Romania (19 million inhabitants) is procedurally linked to that of Bulgaria (6.5 million). The two former communist countries entered the EU in 2007 and have been knocking on Schengen’s door for more than ten years.
