Schengen Area Gets a New Member - Croatia to Join Schengen from Jan 2023

The Schengen area in Europe has a new member, Croatia. Voting by EU countries on Thursday resulted in allowing Croatia to be a part of the Schengen area. To recall, the Schengen area comprises countries with no border checks to travel in between. The voting took place for three countries but the result went in favour of Croatia only with 26 countries supporting it unanimously.

The other two nations, Bulgaria and Romania, will need to wait longer to get a placement in the area. As per the rule, unanimous support from other Schengen members is required to be a part of the area.

Croatia will lift all the border measures with other member countries of the Schengen area, starting Jan 1, 2023. This comes as a convenience for travellers moving between Croatia and other Schengen nations. Now, travellers won’t need to stop for checks while crossing borders. Currently, Croatia is using Kuna as its currency. However, starting Jan 1, it will also change to Euro.

By far, Schengen Area is one of the largest “free travel areas” in the world. It comprises 26 nations that include Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland, and Switzerland in addition to 22 EU states. Created in 1985, the area got its name from a town in Luxembourg called Schengen.

Around 1.7 million people live in one of the Schengen nations and work in the other while daily travellers crossing international borders amounts to 2.5 million daily, as per the Associated Press. Schengen area enables people to travel from one member nation to another without going through border checks. However, a security check is still required upon arrival.