Croatia Post #1

Monica Browne
Sep 2, 2018 · 3 min read

In recent news, on the matter of defending the EU boarders from a migrant crisis, Croatia apparently plays a large role. This is such important current news because Croatia has already experienced a migrant crisis just 3, short years ago. In 2015, Hungarian authorities blocked off their border to Serbia, which was also the easiest route to Germany where many people were in pursuit of applying for asylum.

In an article from 2015 it was stated, “Just one day after Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said migrants stuck in Serbia would be welcome in Croatia, his interior minister is walking back on the offer.” (2) Croatia was a newer addition to the EU at that point and the country had just welcomed close to 9,000 new residents. The interior minister at this point explained the country to be, “completely full” and added that, “if you want to save your life, please go to reception centers in Serbia, or Macedonia, or Greece.” (2) The president of the federal office for migration and refugees, Manfred Schmidt, actually resigned after representatives from each German federal state said he so awfully underestimated the amount of migrants attempting to enter and could not provide for them. (2) This was a large mistake on the president of the federal office of migration and refugee’s part, but the complete responsibility of an underestimation this large cannot possibly fall on one single person. The lack of compassion or empathy, from the interior minister, for the migrants being turned away is one reason this was handled so poorly.

Refugees crossing an illegal Serbia-Croatia border during migration crisis. (5)

Today, on September 1st, 2018, the most current news of migration into Croatia is the prime minister explained that police in Croatia put national and European legislation in place, which include the Schengen Borders Code and the Dublin Regulation. (1) The Schengen Borders Code are rules for external border checks on individual people and it is to facilitate who can enter based on who has real interest to enter into the EU. (3) Dublin Regulations, then, explains which States have the job of evaluating the requests for asylum by people coming into Europe. (4) These are being used to help prevent irregular migration and the occurrence of another crisis.

German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, explained that Croatia is not part of the Schengen Area, but their security is performing outstandingly in protecting the border lines of the EU. (1) A clear take away from the past experience in irregular migration is that it should not be overlooked, so the borders must be secured better to make it a stronger system. At this time, Germany and Croatia are working on building up their economic and political relationships. One step in the right direction includes, “Angela Merkel also agreed to cooperate closely during Croatia’s presidency of the council of the EU in 2020.” (1) Secondly, Zagreb is planning to form a summit meeting with EU and southeastern European countries. (1) This may help strengthen the EU relations as a whole.

Angela Merkel and Andrej Plenkovic. (6)

A helpful point that Andrej Plenkovic, Prime Minister of Croatia, brought up was that it is not necessary to have the same opinion on all topics, but that they work to reach an equilibrium with each topic. (1) Germany and Croatia seem to be taking the correct steps to continue in strengthening their relations. One reason this is a positive is that Germany is Croatia’s highest volume trading partner and good relations are necessary for this. Yet, even more than that, the people of the EU need leaders who can communicate and, if nothing else, Angela Merkel and Andrej Plenkovic are definitely proving their strengths in that department on this topic.

Sources:

  1. https://www.total-croatia-news.com/politics/30764-croatia-has-important-role-in-defending-eu-borders
  2. https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/09/17/in-croatia-migrants-are-welcome-until-theyre-not/

3. https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/what-we-do/policies/borders-and-visas_en

4. https://openmigration.org/en/analyses/what-is-the-dublin-regulation/

5. https://inavukic.com/2015/10/18/migrant-crisis-in-croatia-widens-political-rift-plans-for-coup-detat-suspected/

6. https://www.google.com/search?q=croatia+and+germany+relations+2018&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjsmsPFg53dAhUFXq0KHfaZAH8Q_AUICigB&biw=1193&bih=604#imgrc=_wjxqHKouH3FdM:

By: Monica Browne

Europe at Mizzou

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