The ministers agreed in principle on stepping up mixed border patrols, introducing joint centres for police coordination, and holding regular meetings of relevant ministers and police commissioners from the three countries.

Data after the first ten days of reintroduced police checks on the internal Schengen borders inspires optimism and shows that the measure has been effective, Piantedosi told a press conference after the meeting, adding that the measure was implemented in Italy in a way that did not cause major problems for cross-border workers.

He reiterated that the checks were reintroduced based on terrorism threat analyses. They will be extended until the situation improves, he said, adding that all the ministers would like to see border checks abolished again.

Poklukar noted that EU rules allowed a maximum of two months of extensions.

According to the Italian minister, three measures were agreed at the meeting. The first is the establishment of a permanent structure for the organisation of mixed police brigades. Italy would like to see such brigades, whereas Slovenia advocates the expansion of mixed patrols within the trilateral format, said Poklukar.

The second measure is the establishment of joint police coordination centres. The operational details of both measures will be discussed by the three police commissioners.

And the third measure is the decision to turn such trilateral meetings into a regular thing. The police commissioners are also expected to exchange information more often via videolink.

Poklukar hopes that some other country will decide to join this form of cooperation.

He said that the problem of visa policy would have to be resolved at EU level and that the three ministers were committed to ensuring that foreigners no longer entered the Western Balkan countries as tourists and then headed west.

He also expressed support for the accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen area and for the operation of the Frontex agency in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Next week, Bosnian Minister of Security Nenad Nešić will pay a visit to Slovenia, Poklukar announced.

Božinović sees abuses of asylum policy at EU level as the main problem. All third-country nationals arriving in Slovenia and then Italy from Croatia are registered, he said.

They also crossed the territory of at least one EU country before entering Croatia, he added and called on those countries to join forces with Slovenia, Italy and Croatia.

The Croatian minister believes that mobile police patrols are much more effective than checks at main border crossings. The mixed patrols caught more than 500 smugglers of illegal migrants so far this year, and detected some 26,000 illegal border crossings, he noted.

Piantedosi added that police checks at border crossings had also proved to be effective.

Source: STA