Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić announced on Monday that he expects a solution soon for residents of two Serbian villages cut off by the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES), following a conversation with his Croatian counterpart Davor Božinović. The villages of Neštin and Vizić, located in the Bačka Palanka municipality near the Croatian border, have seen daily life severely disrupted since the EES began digitally logging every border crossing of non EU nationals, strictly enforcing the 90 day limit within any 180 day period. Dačić said Božinović promised to explore bilateral arrangements that would allow border residents to receive permits enabling them to live and work without restriction.
The problem is particularly acute for these two villages because of their unusual geography. Nestled between Fruška Gora and the Danube, Neštin and Vizić are administratively part of Bačka Palanka on the opposite bank of the river, with Croatian territory lying between them and their municipal center. For decades, residents have crossed through Croatia daily to reach schools, doctors, and workplaces, a journey of just 9 to 13 kilometers via the Bačka Palanka–Ilok border crossing. Before Croatia joined the Schengen Area in 2023, this was routine; even after Schengen accession, passport stamps could be quickly filled. But the EES, which began full implementation in April 2026, changed everything. Each transit through Croatian territory is now formally counted as a one day entry into the Schengen zone, meaning villagers quickly exhaust their 90 day allowance despite never actually staying in Croatia or any other EU country. “We travel a few kilometers just to reach our own side,” one resident told Savremena politika. “Now, if each passage counts as entering Schengen, we’ll have to start counting how many times we go into town.”
The human toll is substantial. Vizić is home to 240 residents and Neštin to 613, most of whom commute daily to Bačka Palanka for work. Eight elementary school students from Neštin and five from Vizić travel to town for school, while 24 students from both villages attend high school there. All administrative, healthcare, and other public services are accessed in Bačka Palanka. The alternative route, via Banoštor, then a ferry across the Danube to Begeč, would stretch the journey from 9-13 kilometers to 36-42 kilometers, with ferry schedules dependent on weather and water levels. Dačić noted that the EES has created problems not only for ordinary citizens but also for professionals like truck drivers whose work requires longer stays in the EU than the 180 day limit allows. The issue has been compounded by the long promised Bačka Palanka bridge over the Danube, which finally received a construction contract with Spanish company Centunion in December 2025 and is allocated 15 billion dinars in the 2026 Serbian budget, but will not be completed for four years.
The broader context reveals a systemic failure of planning. Bojana Selaković, coordinator of the National Convention on the EU, called Bačka Palanka “a symptom of poor planning” and a political consequence of years of stagnation in Serbia’s European integration. “When the negotiation process stalls, when integration is used rhetorically rather than as a real reform process, citizens end up suffering because of predictable European rules,” she said, noting that the EU will not change its systems for two Serbian villages. The case echoes Serbia’s broader struggles with EU border policies, in 2009, when Serbia received visa free travel, 18,000 Serbs holding Kosovo issued passports were initially excluded, a problem only resolved in late 2024 after years of advocacy. For now, Dačić’s bilateral talks with Croatia offer the most immediate hope for Neštin and Vizić’s residents. But the episode underscores a harsh reality for candidate countries: EU systems designed for security and efficiency can have devastating unintended consequences for communities whose daily lives straddle borders drawn long before digital surveillance existed.
