Trilateral police patrols to be established at the Croatian external border

SLOVENIA, January 20 - Mr Poklukar expressed his pleasure at hosting his Minister colleagues in Nova Gorica, a historic place on the Slovenian-Italian border, where Slovenian and Italian cultures are intertwined. He wished the citizens of Nova Gorica and Gorizia, the two towns that jointly form this year's European Capital of Culture, much joy at cultural events.

At the end of the trilateral meeting, which has so far proved to be an extremely constructive and effective platform for cooperation, the police chiefs from the three countries, Damjan Petrič, Nikola Milina and Claudio Galzerano, signed an operational memorandum of understanding agreeing on the modalities for trilateral patrols at the Croatian external Schengen border. "This is an extremely important document which provides the basis for our joint cooperation, and I believe that together we will be able to implement the operational activities in the coming days and months," said Minister Poklukar, adding that the document is an excellent basis for our joint cooperation.

The Minister recalled that we are celebrating the fortieth anniversary of the signing of the first Schengen Agreement, which later enabled the creation of the Schengen area, an area without borders, which is no longer what it was due to today's security challenges. Slovenia is a great advocate of the Schengen area, and "we are all working together to abolish internal border controls when the time comes". The signing of the memorandum of understanding is therefore one of the conditions for the lifting of controls at the internal border.

The Ministers also called for the early signature of the status agreement between the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) and Bosnia and Herzegovina, as Frontex is an extremely important factor in the effective fight against smuggling of migrants and in ensuring security in general, according to the Minister.

Furthermore, they called for the strengthening of Europol's mandate in the framework of the operational task force Zebra, which operates in Croatia and involves the police forces of all three countries. They also agreed to step up counter-terrorism activities in cooperation with the Western Balkan partners. This will also be the topic of this year's Brdo Process conference of interior ministers, to be held in March at Brdo pri Kranju.

At the end of the meeting, the Minister thanked his counterparts for the constructive talks and the Mayor of Nova Gorica, Samo Turel, for his hospitality.