Brussels, 29 June 2022
The Council has asked the European Parliament for its opinion on the draft Council decision on the full application of the Schengen acquis in Croatia.
The draft text will now be sent to the European Parliament for consultation. Once the Parliament has delivered its opinion, the decision may be submitted to the Council for adoption. The Council decision needs to be adopted unanimously by those member states which already apply all parts of the Schengen acquis, plus Croatia.
Since its accession to the EU, Croatia has applied the provisions of the Schengen acquis, with the exception of the provisions on the lifting of internal border controls. Under the act of accession of Croatia to the EU, those controls may be lifted only following a Council decision to that effect, after it has been verified, in accordance with the applicable Schengen evaluation procedures, that Croatia fulfils the necessary conditions.
The Schengen evaluation of Croatia took place between 2016 and 2020. In October 2019, the Commission found that Croatia had taken the measures needed to ensure that the necessary conditions for the application of all parts of the Schengen acquis were met. It closed the action plans for the evaluated fields in February 2021. On 9 December 2021, the Council approved conclusions on the fulfilment of the necessary conditions for the full application of the Schengen acquis in Croatia.
Source – EU Council