"It is time Croatia joins the EU's passport-free Schengen Area," some members of the European parliament said in Brussels on Wednesday at a "mini plenary session" ahead of Thursday's vote on the matter, state news agency Hina said in their news item.

“Schengen has been waiting for Croatia, the Croatian people have been waiting, and now that moment has come,” Hina cited Portuguese MEP Paulo Rangel (EPP), the rapporteur on Croatia’s Schengen membership, as saying in the debate.

Croatia has complied with 281 recommendations in eight areas for joining the Schengen Area, and Rangel said the country had “passed the most comprehensive and most detailed evaluation.”

“Croatia is the only EU member state to have established an independent police oversight mechanism… Croatian MEPs are confident that other countries would follow suit,” Rangel said.

Slovenian MEP Matjaz Nemec (S&D) said Croatia deserved to join Schengen and called on the Justice and Home Affairs Council to clearly support the accession. He added that “oversight of the conduct of Croatian authorities on the border would continue,” Hina cited him as saying, without clarifying.

It is expected that on Thursday a large majority of MEPs in the 705-seat European Parliament will vote to approve Croatia’s membership in the Schengen Area, in a penultimate step for final approval. The last formal hurdle should be the Justice and Home Affairs Council, a body composed of interior and justice ministers of all 27 EU countries, which meets on 9 December.

European Commission Vice-President, Margaritas Schinas, said that the Commission had okayed Croatia’s membership in 2019.

“It’s been confirmed that Croatia is protecting in the best possible way the Union’s longest external border from illegal migration in line with European and international law,” and that those claiming otherwise “are only deceiving the public for their own petty political interests,” Croatian MEP Tomislav Sokol (EPP/HDZ) said. Hina did not clarify Sokol’s reference.

“Four-hundred million people and one border, and we will be a part of that. This way, Croatia is becoming integrated into the EU’s historical, civilisational and cultural space,” said Croatian MEP Suncana Glavak (EPP/HDZ). Hina did not explain what she meant by “civilisational space.”

“It’s difficult to understand or to convey to someone who hasn’t had to wait on the border for a security check or passport control… But there are two categories of citizens, those whose countries are in the Schengen Area and those whose are not,” Croatian MEP Biljana Borzan (S&D/SDP) said.

“I’m happy and proud that my country of Croatia is at Schengen’s door, and that as of 1 January 2023, my Istria will be a true European region without borders,” Croatian MEP Valter Flego (Renew/IDS) said.

Rangel said Croatia’s Schengen accession also served as a “clear signal to Western Balkan countries,” and that Croatia should be “an inspiration to other countries in the region.” During the debate, clear support was also given to the Schengen membership of Romania and Bulgaria.

The Schengen Area, named after a town in Luxembourg where the initial 1985 multilateral border agreement was signed in 1985,  involves 26 European countries which agreed to abolish border checks and controls between each other. These include 22 EU countries and four which aren’t members of the bloc but have similar border agreements with the EU in place – Switzerland, Norway, Iceland, and Liechtenstein.

Ireland, a EU member, negotiated an opt-out from the common travel area when it joined the European Economic Community in 1973.

The remaining four EU countries which are not yet part of Schengen have joined the EU much later and are required to join at some point in the future. These include Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Cyprus.