Plenary back Croatia’s Schengen accession. MEPs agree that the country already fulfils the necessary conditions to join the free-travel zone, and the Council must now take a unanimous decision to lift the remaining border controls between the Schengen area and Croatia. Extracts from the debate in the plenary.

debate

plenary session

Schengen (T2)

RANGEL, Paulo (EPP, PT)

EU - Croatia (T)

ZOVKO, Željana (EPP, HR)

SCHINAS, Margaritis (EPP-DE, EL, EC)

FLEGO, Valter (Renew, HR)

NEMEC, Matjaž (S&D, SI)

Council decision on Schengen acquis in Croatia: extracts from the debate and the vote

SOUNDBITE (English), Paulo RANGEL (EPP, PT), Rapporteur, The Commission in 2019 and the Council in 2021 have formally confirmed Croatia's readiness to become a full member of Schengen following their respective evaluations and naturally, the adoption of all required measures. In addition, Croatia is the only member state that has so far implemented an independent mechanism for monitoring and controlling the actions of authorities in the area of irregular migration....

SOUNDBITE (Portuguese), Paulo RANGEL (EPP, PT), Rapporteur, We're talking about security, fundamental rights. How can it be that despite all this, there are still member states in the council who are still reluctant to allow Croatia to enter the Schengen Agreement?

SOUNDBITE (English), Paulo RANGEL (EPP, PT), rapporteur, This decision will also have a strong impact and will send a clear signal to the Western Balkan countries about their future European aspirations. As the youngest EU member states, Croatia should serve as an inspiration for other countries in the region

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, We also then stress the time, the importance for Croatia to continue working consistently to implement all ongoing actions, in particular external border management requirements

SOUNDBITE (English), Margaritis SCHINAS, Vice-President of the EC in charge of promoting our European Way of Life, Croatia has also made a lot of efforts on data protection and fundamental rights. It was the country that first the first member state to have set up an independent monitoring mechanism on fundamental rights, something that we propose to all member states within our proposal for a new EU pact for migration and asylum

SOUNDBITE (Croatian), &#381;eljana ZOVKO (EPP, HR), MEP 8 - 9th parliamentary terms, Croatia is a country which defended its territory without anyone's help. It's a country which supports Western Balkans, which is trying, trying to drag Bosnia-Herzegovina along the path forward. I'm sure that it will be at the level of your expectations. And I would like to thank the entire European Parliament, which will support this decision about Croatia's entry to the eurozone and the Schengen area.

SOUNDBITE (Slovenian), Matja&#382; NEMEC (S&amp;D, SI), MEP 9th parliamentary term, Schengen matters to the people. Croatia fulfilled all the criteria and deserves to be entered into the Schengen area. Every state, state deserves to be entered once it fulfils all the criteria.]However, Croatia needs to understand that they have issues regarding human rights on their southern border. Entering Schengen does not mean that they will not need to respect EU law and international law. On the contrary, we will be clear in monitoring their actions

SOUNDBITE (Croatian), Valter FLEGO (Renew, HR), MEP 9th parliamentary term, It is clear that finally now we are becoming part of the most elite club in the world, most our club in the world in this respect. And we do deserve this. Croatian citizens and our economy. And also the queues at the border, waiting times at the border for our tourists, for our economic operators will be reduced. This will reduce also the losses which such queuing at the border generates.

Extracts of the vote, Brussels region, Belgium, 10/11/2022,  (8  shots)