ZAGREB, October 26, 2019 – Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Friday he expected Slovenia to make a “wise decision” and support Croatia’s Schengen entry which, he added, was also in the interest of Slovenia’s authorities because it meant the EU’s external border would move and become Croatia’s responsibility.
“Slovenia will certainly act wisely and intelligently,” he told reporters in Split in the wake of messages from Slovenia after the European Commission assessed that Croatia met the technical conditions to join the Schengen area of free travel.
He said Croatia met a score of difficult conditions to deserve that assessment, adding that Slovenia could benefit the most as protecting the EU’s external border was its responsibility now. “Croatia’s Schengen entry will help Slovenians the most,” he said, adding that he was sure the majority of Slovenians thought the same.
Asked if during its Council of the EU presidency in the first half of 2020 Croatia would again raise the issue of enlargement to southeast Europe despite opposition from some member states, Grlić Radman said it would, but noted that it was a process which primarily depended on meeting the requirements.
“We regret the decision of some countries which didn’t support launching the accession negotiations with North Macedonia and Albania because we strongly pushed for launching the negotiation process,” he said, adding that he hoped the topic would be on the agenda of an EU summit in Zagreb next year and that some policy chapters in the accession negotiations with aspirants Serbia and Montenegro would be closed by then.
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