The Council of the European Union will decide early next month on Croatia's request to allow citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina to enter Croatia with a valid ID card after it joins the EU on July 1, a spokesman for the EU Delegation in Sarajevo told the Dnevni Avaz daily of Friday.
Commenting on the Croatian government's decision to terminate the agreement with Bosnia and Herzegovina on visa-free travel, EU Delegation spokesman Andy McGuffie told the newspaper that such a decision was expected and in line with Croatia's forthcoming accession to the EU.
Croatia is working hard within the Union to obtain approval for the existing travel regime with ID cards. A decision on this will be made by the EU member states and Croatia formally approached them on this issue on March 6. The request has recently been discussed by Union bodies. It has been decided that the Legal Department of the Council of the EU will give its opinion by mid-May and the Council will take a position at the beginning of June, McGuffie said.
Under the decision to cancel the agreement on the no-visa regime, as of July 1 citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina would be allowed to enter Croatia only if they possess a biometric passport, while those holding older passports would have to apply for a visa.
According to the Bosnian Agency for Identification Documents, Registers and Data Exchange (IDDEEA), slightly over 1.5 million citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina currently possess a biometric passport, while about 115,000 still have old passports with which they cannot travel to the EU anymore.
Bosnia and Herzegovina started issuing new biometric ID cards in February and slightly over 50,000 people have been issued such documents so far. If the Council of the EU approves this, only citizens with a biometric ID card would be allowed to enter Croatia as of July 1, while holders of old ID cards would require a passport to cross the border.
