Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic hopes for a speedy resolution to Croatia’s problematic border situation.
Opening yesterday’s session of the government, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic took another look at the current problems facing Croatia’s border crossings, an unexpected and unappealing situation involving enormous delays and crowds following the quick implementation of new regulations earlier this month. Assessing that systematic controls for Croatia, a nation which relies almost entirely on the tourism industry, were unsatisfactory. He commented that Croatia has since launched a broad diplomatic activity on this issue with the aim of coming to a resolution.
“We will use all the possible legal, institutional and political tools we have available through dialogue within the European Council to solve this problem because it can not be acceptable to us as a tourist country” stated Plenkovic, before adding that Croatia would continue with the engagement approach to meet Schengen criteria.
It is worth remembering that Croatia shares land borders with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro and Hungary. Traffic from throughout Europe entering the country through these borders, particularly via Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina during the summer months is typically heavy even without such targeted controls. Those travelling by car down to Dubrovnik and the Dubrovnik riviera (which is at risk of becoming one of the biggest victims of this undesirable issue if it is not resolved with haste) have to cross the border into and back out of Bosnia and Herzegovina at Neum, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s only piece of coastline.
