Croatia plans to enter the Schengen free-travel area two years after joining the European Union, which is scheduled for mid-2013, Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said on Thursday.
"Our plan is to enter the Schengen area two years after becoming a member. I believe we are on the right track to implementing the action plan to meet the Schengen standards by the end of the year," Ostojic told reporters in Brussels where he was attending a meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council.
Ostojic said that 450 new border policemen should be deployed along the Croatian borders, which would become the external borders of the European Union, border crossings should be completed and border police equipped by the end of the year.
As of July 1, 2013, Croatia will be entitled to 120 million euros for the purchase of helicopters for border control. Croatia will have to have two policemen on every kilometre of the border line, while now it has one police officer patrolling a two-kilometre stretch of the border. It will need about 5,000 people to ensure the functioning of the Schengen border regime.
The main topics discussed at the meeting, which Ostojic was attending as an observer, included illegal migrations, migratory pressures on the Greek-Turkish border, the management of the Schengen zone, and the asylum system.
On the margins of the meeting, Ostojic signed an agreement on readmission with German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich.
