Bucharest, Oct. 19, (dpa/GNA) – In view of the threat of terrorism, Slovenia will introduce checks at its borders with neighbouring Hungary and Croatia from this Saturday.
The measures will probably last for two months, the government in Ljubljana decided on Thursday, state news agency STA reported.
Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar will inform his EU colleagues about the decision at the meeting of EU interior ministers scheduled for Thursday in Luxembourg, the report said.
Previously, neighbouring Italy announced that it would introduce checks at its border with Slovenia starting this weekend, initially for 10 days.
Slovenia, Croatia, Hungary and Italy belong to the visa-free Schengen area, which is in itself free of border controls.
Schengen states must agree with Brussels on exceptional temporary border checks at Schengen’s internal borders.
Poklukar already justified the planned checks the evening before. “The terrorist threat in Europe is high. We see what is happening in France and Belgium,” he said.
The danger, he said, was mainly posed by illegal migrants on the so-called Balkan route, which refugees from crisis areas in the Middle and Far East have been using for years on their way to Europe.
“We do not want radical persons or persons with terrorist intentions to come via the Western Balkan route,” the minister continued.
Italy had earlier countered fears of Islamist attacks in view of the return to fixed checks at the Slovenian border, with Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani saying in Rome: “We have no risk of attacks. We have no signals in this direction, but we must not become careless.”
GNA