Croatia meets all criteria for accession to the EU's Schengen passport-free travel area and there are no obstacles to its full membership, European Parliament Rapporteur Paulo Rangel said on Monday.

“At this moment, Croatia has proved that it is prepared to apply all the provisions of the Schengen acquis in a satisfactory manner,” Rangel said while presenting a draft report on Croatia’s readiness to join the Schengen area at a session of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE).

The Portuguese MEP was appointed the European Parliament rapporteur to draft an opinion on Croatia’s accession to the Schengen area.

The adoption of a position on the report by LIBE has been expedited, with the deadline for the submission of amendments being noon, 13 October.

Rangel visited Croatia last week. He visited the police station at Cetingrad, the reception centre for asylum seekers in Zagreb and the Police Directorate, and held talks with Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic and Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic.

Security on the border and respect for fundamental rights are very satisfactory, Rangel told the Committee, noting that his conclusion was based on firsthand experience.

Rangel expressed satisfaction with police procedures and migrant reception, noting that it was rather odd that most asylum seekers were nationals of Cuba and Burundi. Those countries’ citizens can enter Serbia without visas, from where they travel to Croatia to seek asylum, he said.

He added that he talked to them in English and Spanish and that they were all satisfied with how they were treated.

Rangel’s assessment was supported during the ensuing debate by representatives of all major political groups in the European Parliament sitting on LIBE.

A representative of the liberal Renew Europe group, Sophia in ‘t Veld, said they supported Croatia’s accession but added that problems on the ground, such as migrant pushbacks, should not be ignored.

The most critical was Irish MEP Clare Daly of the Left group, who said that an independent monitoring mechanism existed only on paper, that last year alone 9,000 migrants were pushed back from the Croatian border, and that migrants were beaten and raped, which was in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

In his closing address, Rangel said that it was not true that the independent monitoring mechanism existed only on paper, stressing that he had also talked to the Croatian public ombudsman, who, he said, is usually very critical about the treatment of migrants, but that she told him that the monitoring mechanism is functioning and that there is no systematic violation of migrants’ rights.

Rangel said that he had never said that there were no problems, that all countries on the EU’s external borders had them but that reports of migrants being tortured and raped were not true.

The final decision on the expansion of the Schengen area is made by the EU members that are part of that passport-free travel area. The European Parliament’s role in that process is only advisory but according to the relevant rules, the Council, that is, the member states, must ask the Parliament for an opinion.

Even though its opinion is not binding on the Council, it is good if the opinion is positive, because of the political message as well as not to give member states that could possibly have certain reservations about the enlargement of the Schengen area an opportunity to use a possibly negative opinion for opposition.

In October 2019, after four years of evaluation, the European Commission concluded that Croatia had taken the necessary steps for Schengen membership.

On 29 June 2022, the Council of the European Union launched a decision making process on Croatia’s application, requesting an opinion from the European Parliament, which is necessary for the final decision on accession.

The Council of the EU then proposed that as of 1 January 2023 border controls be abolished on Croatia’s land and sea borders with countries of the Schengen area, and that at airports they be abolished as of 26 March, for technical reasons.

Shortly after its presentation, the draft opinion by Rapporteur Rangel will be voted on by the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, after which the European Parliament should vote on it at a plenary session.

The European Parliament might adopt its opinion already this month, after which Croatia’s application will need the unanimous support of the Council members that already apply the Schengen acquis, a decision that is expected to be made by the end of the year.