Prevention of illegal migrations will be the main topic of the summit meeting of the leaders of Mediterranean EU countries in Valletta, Malta, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday, noting that illegal migrations were causing serious political problems for many European countries.

“Tomorrow we expect a thorough debate about joint efforts to curb as much as possible the process of illegal migration, help the source countries, cooperate with transit countries and prevent smugglers from profiting on the misfortune of many, at the same time causing serious political problems for many European countries,” Plenkovic told reporters in the Maltese capital.

The tenth EU MED-9 summit is taking place in Valletta on Thursday and Friday, and it will be attended by Maltese Prime Minister Robert Abela, Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides, French President Emmanuel Macron, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob, European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Plenkovic held a bilateral meeting with his Maltese counterpart on Thursday, stressing that relations between the two countries are “very good”.

“We have excellent cooperation within the European Council,” he said.

Travelling with Plenkovic aboard the Croatian government plane from Split were also von der Leyen and Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob.

Asked by a reporter if he had discussed with Golob cooperation on illegal migrations, Plenkovic said that he had excellent cooperation with his Slovenian counterpart.

The recently introduced check points along Slovenia’s border with Croatia are not aimed at “slowing down movement between the two countries”, Plenkovic said, adding that the compensatory measures were being conducted inside Slovenia’s territory, the same way as in Croatia.

Those measures will in no way affect the free movement of people, especially not the movement of Croatian citizens towards Slovenia, Plenkovic said.