Switzerland will open up its labour market to Croatian workers as of January 1, 2022 and they will have the same status as citizens of other European Union member states, the Swiss Federal Council announced in a statement on its website on Friday.

Switzerland notified the EU of its decision at a meeting of the Swiss-EU Joint Committee on the Agreement on Free Movement of Persons, held by video conference on Friday.

At its meeting on October 1, the Swiss Federal Council decided to award the status of free flow of persons to citizens of the Republic of Croatia, starting from January 1, 2022, the statement said.

Should immigrant workers from Croatia exceed a certain number, Switzerland might resort to the safeguard clause and again restrict work permits to workers from Croatia from January 1, 2023 until no later than the end of 2026, the statement said.

On December 31, 2020, a total of 28,324 Croatian workers were residents in Switzerland, six more than in 2019. They accounted for 1.9 percent of the citizens of EU/EFTA countries living in Switzerland, according to the statement.