ZAGREB, June 6, 2019 - Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović held talks in Brussels on Thursday with EU Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos on Croatia's future Schengen Area membership.
Avramopoulos commended the remarkable progress Croatia has achieved in the past 18 months, the Interior Ministry said in a press release.
The two officials agreed common activities for the final verification of the technical conditions for Croatia's entry to the Schengen Area.
The membership is one of Croatia's priorities. Prime Minister Andrej Plenković recently told Politico.eu that his wish is for Croatia to join by 2024. Last year Croatia submitted to the European Commission a document saying it believes it has met all the recommendations in all eight areas.
The director of Bosnia and Herzegovina's border police Zoran Galić on Thursday once again warned that that security agency lacked hundreds of personnel and all efforts to secure the border and control the influx of migrants until now were in vain.
"We are currently lacking four hundred employees," Galić said at a ceremony marking the 19th anniversary of the establishment of the country's border police. He underscored that border police are exhausted because they are continually working extra hours.
The problem of the shortage of workers should be partially resolved when 100 cadets graduate, but filling vacancies still depends on political decisions.
Bosnia and Herzegovina has a 1,600 kilometre border with other countries. It shares its longest border, of 1,000 km, with Croatia. There are 83 official border crossings and 55 are categorised as international crossings while the others are for cross-border communities.
Deputy Security Minister Mijo Krešić underlined that illegal migration continues to be the biggest challenge to border police. He added that state policy toward that problem has to change as soon as possible because new challenges will follow, particularly after Croatia joins the Schengen Area.
More Schengen news can be found in the Politics section.
