When the Croatian political analyst Žarko Puhovski traveled from Zagreb via Slovenia to Austria, where he conducted his postgraduate studies, he traveled for two and a half hours at best to his final destination. At worst, for the same destination, it took him more than five hours to drive.
The reason for that, as he explained in an interview for "Vijesti", was that he was "bothered" at the border with Slovenia. It was then that he felt in the best way the shortcomings of the fact that his country, after the admission of Slovenia to the European Union, remained at the door of the European family of nations. The same one that Montenegro would like to join.
Namely, Croatian citizens would not have experienced the waiting and hassles at the border with Slovenia if official Zagreb had reached an agreement with its former brothers to provide a separate entrance for the neighboring republic, i.e. Croatia, at the border crossing with Slovenia.
"Croatia did not take it upon itself in time to negotiate with Slovenia about a special entry, because according to the regulations, when entering the EU, you have entry for persons and vehicles from EU members and for everyone else. The rest are a separate category as a whole. And then people from the neighboring country have to wait for hours, because someone appeared in front of them, for example, from Korea, with whom those at the border do not know how to deal with," said Puhovski.
In order for Montenegrins not to go through similar hardships on their way through Croatia to their final destination, Puhovski suggests that the official Podgorica, before Croatia becomes a full member of the EU, initiates a political decision towards Zagreb, so that the citizens do not lose "an awful lot time".
"Because Croatia cannot be expected to do anything special about it. That is not a problem for Croatia. This is a problem for those countries that remained outside, that is, at the door of the EU, i.e. Montenegro, Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. There needs to be a political decision, which is implemented by the MUP, that is, the border police. They are in charge of that," explained Puhovski.
Practically speaking, this would mean that in the foreseeable future there will be more entrances at the border crossing with Croatia, that is, the one intended for EU citizens, then the entrance for everyone else, and the entrance for the neighboring country, in this case Montenegro.
"So, one, so to speak, hole is added. At the Debeli Brijeg border crossing, there is enough space to make another entrance, which would be intended only for the neighboring country.
The benefits of such a move would be that the citizens of Montenegro, when entering, do not have to wait for the Croatian police to deal with, for example, someone from Albania or Kosovo," said Puhovski, explaining that something like that existed between the Czech Republic and Slovakia, because The Czech Republic entered the European Union before Slovakia.
MUP is already working on relaxation
The Ministry of Internal Affairs, whose competence includes, among other things, the determination of border crossings and the determination of border traffic regimes with neighboring countries, has already begun activities that would in the foreseeable future relax the movement of our citizens towards Croatia, which should become fully legal in July 2013. member of the European Union.
"MUP has started activities on the preparation of the agreement on border crossings between the Government of Montenegro and the Government of the Republic of Croatia, and conducting negotiations with the aim of harmonizing the texts of the agreement on border crossings and the agreement on determining the border traffic regime.
With the agreement on border crossings between the two countries, Debeli brijeg-Karasovići and Kobila-Konfin, the Montenegrin side will propose that the citizens of Montenegro and the Republic of Croatia have priority in crossing the common state border, from mid-2013, the external border of the EU," he told the News. Milan Paunović, head of the Service for Integrated Border Management.
He clarified that the agreement will define the regime of crossing the state border and residence of citizens of Montenegro and Croatia living in the border area.
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