After a disaster on Friday, the situation at Croatia’s border crossings has improved.
At the Bregana border crossing with Slovenia, personal vehicles entering Croatia wait for about half an hour, while buses entering Croatia wait to an hour and a half, reported on Saturday morning the Croatian Auto Club (HAK), reports 24sata.hr on April 15, 2017.
Lines and waiting times at border crossings on Saturday morning are substantially shorter than on Friday, when lines were up to 10 kilometres long and people had to waiting for five hours at some to the larger border crossings.
On Friday, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said that he had appealed for the Slovenian police to return to the former border regime of targeted controls of passengers who are citizens of the European Union, adding that Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar showed that he understood Croatian position due to the large traffic jams at border crossings in previous days.
“My appeal was very clear – the Slovenian police should leave the systemic controls and move to targeted controls, which would mean a return to the previous regime of border controls and would result in smaller jams and waiting times at border crossings,” said Plenković asked about the long lines at the Slovenian border on the eve of Easter holidays.
Plenković added that he and Slovenian Prime Minister Cerar were in daily contact and that he showed understanding regarding the unsustainability of systematic border controls, especially on the eve of the Easter holidays and the start of the main tourist season. Plenković pointed out that the next step is to find, together with all other partners, “a long-term solution that will lead us in the position to be ready to join the Schengen.”
“We will find institutional and legal methods to prevent such situations in the future, but at the same time we are ready to contribute to the prevention of terrorism and to improving the controls of our borders with countries which are not yet in the European Union,” he said.
Last week, the new EU regulation came into force which provides for detailed controls of all passengers entering and leaving the European Union, regardless of whether they are citizens of EU member states or not. That has resulted in long lines at the borders, particularly between Croatia and Slovenia, given that Croatia is still not a member of the Schengen Area.
Croatian government is under increasing pressure from the media and public because it does not seem to be too concerned with the situation at the borders, despite the fact that tourism is one of the main sector of Croatia’s economy which could take a significant hit if foreign tourists decide to go elsewhere in order to avoid traffic jams.
