Milanovic: Possible changes to Schengen regime won't affect Croatia

European Union leaders adopted a joint statement on combating terrorism at their informal summit in Brussels on Thursday.

The document provides for a possibility of systematic controls on the EU's Schengen borders, but Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic says that this will not affect Croatia.

"It's a statement, not conclusions, because this is an informal summit where no official conclusions are made. Even if this was to take effect one day, many years from now, I'm confident that Croatia will be in the Schengen area by then," Milanovic told the press after the summit, which was dominated by talks on efforts to establish peace in eastern Ukraine and the fight against terrorism.

The joint statement, which should provide guidance for action in the period ahead, calls for the existing Schengen legal framework to be fully used to strengthen border security and modernise controls on the external borders of the EU.

Milanovic said that Croatia was preparing for entry into the Schengen passport-free area and that at the beginning of July it would ask for an examination of what it had done in that regard. "Then it's up to them to decide when we will be admitted, and I believe it will be soon, because our citizens could travel around Europe without visas in the 1990s as well," he said.

(Hina) vm

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