Breaking: Slovenia prolongs border controls at Hungarian and Croatian border

The Slovenian government decided on Thursday to prolong border controls at the Croatian and Hungarian borders until 21 December, Slovenian Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar said after a cabinet meeting.

He said the government had also instructed the Foreign Ministry to notify EU member states and the European Commission of the planned temporary reintroduction of border controls for a period of six months. He said it was necessary because of the high level of terrorist threats in the EU, Portfolio reports.

Currently, the government extends border controls under Article 28 of the Schengen Borders Code for up to two months, until 21 December. After that, Slovenia will carry out border checks under Articles 25 and 27 of the Code, which allows internal border checks for up to six months, Poklukar explained.

“I hope that the terror threat level will decrease and we can lift the measures, but for the time being, we are doing everything we can to ensure the security of Slovenia,”

he said.

Portfolio wrote that the Minister also assured that people living along the border will not notice anything of the measure. “We do not want long queues and traffic stoppages at the former border crossing points,” he stressed.

Slovenia first reintroduced border controls on 21 October, setting up 14 checkpoints on its borders, 12 on the Croatian border and two on the Hungarian border. EU citizens can use all border crossing points, while citizens from other countries can only cross the border at these 14 points.

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