The EU should do more to tackle the migrant crisis in the region, particularly in Bosnia, as the “chaos in the Balkans” will eventually result in problems within the EU, Croatian European Parliament member Zeljana Zovko told N1 on Thursday, adding that she is in favour of strengthening borders.

“It is not enough to just say that money is being sent and to shift the responsibility to a country that has not reformed its institutions. This can be seen in the reports on what has not been functioning in BiH in the past few years,” Zovko stressed.

“Two concepts are fighting here in the European Parliament; there is the concept of facilitating the penetration of migrants towards the EU and we then have the accumulation of a large number of migrants. We are committed to the concept of strengthening borders and helping BiH and the countries of the Western Balkans maintain their borders and regulate access,” she said.

“The final consequence of this chaos in the Balkans will result in problems within the EU,” she added.

The EU parliamentarian rejected reports of Croatian police mistreating migrants entering the country and pushing them back to Bosnia.

“I think that everything that the Croatian police is doing is based on the law and such accusations do not stand,” she said.

When told that the behaviour of Croatian police is well documented, Zovko said that “all kinds of things are documented” and that she has come across situations where things that were documented “were not based on the truth.”

Zovko also spoke about Bosnia’s efforts to join the EU and said that “BiH is one of the worst countries in terms of the European Commission’s enlargement report and it is now up to Parliament to try to fix what it can and help BiH with its Resolution and reports on the previous two in order for the country get on the right path to the EU.”

She noted that EP Rapporteur for Bosnia, Paolo Rangel, presented a report on the country which says that it must implement a number of changes in order to achieve EU candidate status and that Bosnia needs help with this as it is “not like other countries in the Balkans because of its specific division of competencies.”

“There is a High Representative, a large number of members of the international community, so it is not only the responsibility of the citizens but also of Europe to avoid possible consequences,” she said.

According to Zovko, “Croatia's goal and interest is for BiH to become a full member of the EU.”

“I am lobbying for a European BiH that will represent peace and security for the EU borders and will not pose a threat to Croatia either,” Zovko said.

“Croatia has a great responsibility because of its role in ending the war in BiH,” she said, arguing that the Croatian military operation ‘Storm’ “led to us having a peace agreement.”