End of drama: Croatia enters; "Great success"
Croatia got the green light to enter the Schengen zone.
Source: B92
The news was reported as breaking news by all Croatian media, stating that the country will be in the largest borderless zone from January 1, 2023.
Croatia's entry into the Schengen zone was voted on individually, while Bulgaria and Romania will be voted on later and it is expected that Austria will veto those countries. This means that on the first day of next year, Croatia will remove the ramps from the border with Slovenia and Hungary.
Until the last moment, there was a drama surrounding the vote on which country or countries would enter the Schengen zone, because Croatia had the best chance, while Bulgaria and Romania were hanging on by a thread, and obviously still are.
At the start of today's meeting of the interior ministers of the EU member states, Austria announced that it will veto the entry of Bulgaria and Romania. The Netherlands said it would support Romania's entry, but not Bulgaria's.
At one point, the Croatian media reported that Germany and Luxembourg also rebelled, threatening to block Croatia as well, if Romania and Bulgaria did not enter, that is, if Austria did not remove the veto.
Hrvatska je dobila jednoglasnu podršku Vijeća za unutarnje poslove i pravosuđe - 1. siječnja 2023. postajemo članica #Schengen! U godini isporuke ostvarili smo strateške ciljeve @VladaRH, od kojih će najveću korist imati 🇭🇷 građani i gospodarstvo!
— Andrej Plenković (@AndrejPlenkovic) December 8, 2022
✅ #Eurozone
✅ #Schengen pic.twitter.com/mPCGMpGZ1E
