Croatian MEP Tonino Picula warned at the European Parliament's plenary session in Strasbourg on Wednesday that the announcements that German border police would be sent to Schengen Area external borders were concerning, and that Croatia, as a country with the longest EU external border, should not be left out of such partial agreements.

Croatia has not yet joined the Schengen Area, and its eastern borders with Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia are the European Union’s external borders, while Croatia’s neighbour Slovenia, as a member of Schengen Area, has strengthened border control with Croatia.

“The issue of migrations is again in the spotlight, but not because of the large influx of migrants like in 2015, but as a reflection of new political circumstances in Italy and the coalition crisis in Germany,” Picula said after the Socialist Group in the European Parliament announced it would oppose the concept of so-called transit centres where refugees and asylum seekers, already registered in one of the EU countries, would be placed.

There were conflicts in the coalition government in Germany in the last weeks over the country’s migration policy, with Horst Seehofer, leader of the Bavarian CSU party, opposing Merkel over how Germany should deal with asylum seekers. They reached a deal on Monday, under which the country would establish transit centres near the Germany-Austria border where the asylum seekers who have already registered in some other EU member would be processed and returned to the country of registration.

At the EU summit meeting that took place last week, the countries agreed that it would be best to deal with the issue of migration collectively, rather than leave each member state to find their own solution. But participation in the agreed programmes is voluntary under the deal.

“One thing, unfortunately, didn’t change: we still haven’t agreed on a Dublin Accord reform or a collective asylum system,” Picula said, adding that the offered solutions only served to calm the political tensions in some member states.

In a letter to her coalition partners after the summit, in an attempt to stabilise the coalition, Angela Merkel said that German border police officers were prepared to assist in guarding the Schengen Area external borders in Slovenia and Bulgaria, which surprised even Slovenian caretaker Prime Minster Miro Cerar, Vecernji List Daily had reported.

“That’s not necessary at this time. It’s something we should think about if there is a large increase in migrations,” he said, adding that the Slovenian police was doing a good job guarding the Schengen border.

The German Chancellor’s idea to focus on the Slovenian border goes against Croatia’s efforts to strengthen the EU external border in Croatia, and not create additional barriers on the Croatia-Slovenia border.

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