European Commission Backs Croatia to Join Schengen Area

The European Commission announced on Tuesday that Croatia has "taken the measures needed to ensure that the necessary conditions for the full application of the Schengen rules and standards are met".

"Croatia will need to continue working on the implementation of all ongoing actions, in particular its management of the external borders, to ensure that these conditions continue to be met," the commission said in a press release.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the president of the commission, expressed his support for Croatia.

"Sharing the achievement of Schengen must be our common objective. This is why I trust that Member States will take the right steps for Croatia to become a full Schengen member soon," Juncker said.

Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic told a press conference that followed the commission's statement that "it is an important day… [and] another European success for Croatia".

However, the European Commission's evaluation on technical preparedness is the first step since member states must also unanimously agree on it.

This could be a problem for Croatia because last week some Slovenian MEPs questioned Croatia's meeting of technical requirements.

In an open letter to the presidents of the incumbent and the next commission, the Slovenian MPs expressed serious reservations regarding Croatia's compliance with EU legal standards, "notably regarding respect for and implementation of international agreements and judgments" - an indirect reference to an ongoing Slovenian-Croatian border dispute.

Meanwhile, all 11 Croatian MEPs said on Monday that Croatia has met all the technical requirements, calling on the European Commission to confirm Croatia's preparedness to join the Schengen Area and resist the ...