State secretaries from Croatia's and Slovenia's interior ministries met on Friday near the Croatia-Slovenia border with representatives of Donja Voca Municipality, which is carrying out a project to develop broadband infrastructure which could also be used in border control.

Nearly HRK 65 million (€860k) has been approved for the development of broadband infrastructure in Donja Voca and six neighbouring municipalities through a project.

Donja Voca Mayor Kruno Jurgec said that the project was multidimensional and that part of it was related to the security within municipal borders and to the security of external borders. He recalled that Donja Voca was the least developed municipality in Varazdin County but that it had prepared a programme co-financed by European and State money.

State Secretary at Croatian Interior Ministry, Terezija Gras, said the infrastructure was also important for border control, control of illegal migration and control of all forms of cross-border criminal activities.

Slovenian State Secretary Franc Kangler said that the conclusion of the meeting was that Croatian and Slovenian police and border police were cooperating well.

They have a very good result in detecting crime due to their information exchange. I hope that Europe will see that Croatia seriously intends to join the Schengen Area. Slovenia supports Croatia, if all measures are taken, and I do not see any problem with Croatia joining the Schengen Area, Kangler said.

We are now the border for the entire Europe. The sooner the border moves, the better for us and you, Kangler said.