Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon said on Tuesday she hoped border controls with Croatia, introduced as Slovenia raised the level of security readiness after the escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, would be abolished "as soon as possible".

“Schengen is not in a good condition,” she told the press after a meeting of Danube region countries in Brdo pri Kranju.

“Slovenia introduced border checks with Croatia (last Saturday) due to the deterioration of the security situation across Europe. That’s the reason. I hope we will be able to abolish the checks as soon as possible,” Fajon said.

Slovenia is “a friend of Schengen” and the free travel regime should be “restored” as soon as possible, she said. “Schengen is the most tangible thing for citizens.”

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg said the system of free travel in the EU was not working.

“We are clearly telling Brussels the system is dysfunctional. We now have Italy’s (border controls) with Slovenia, Slovenia’s with Croatia, Austria’s with Slovenia… One third of Schengen countries have border controls. Therefore, something is wrong in the system,” he added.

Croatia was the last country to join the Schengen Area, on 1 January this year. Before the area’s further enlargement to Bulgaria and Romania, he said, it’s necessary to make sure the system works.

“Austrians love Schengen. We love to travel around without border controls. Therefore we want to enlarge it, but so that it works.”