Once it enters the Schengen area of passport-free travel, Croatia will not erect a fence on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in an interview with the Vecernji List daily Saturday issue.

Commenting on his visit to Bosnia and Herzegovina earlier this week, Plenkovic said that Croatia supports BiH’s sovereignty and integrity as well as its spirit as agreed in Dayton – one state, two entities and three equal constituent peoples, noting that Croatia will not allow the inequality of Croats in relation to the other two constituent peoples.

“My position is clear and I reiterated it once again in Sarajevo and Mostar – Croatia will not erect a fence or a wall on the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina. That border connects us and that will remain so after Croatia’s accession to the Schengen area. But that makes cooperation between our police forces and other relevant services extremely important so that we can prevent illegal migrations,” he said.

Schengen entry is not only a major privilege, it is also a major obligation for Croatia. Our state border with BiH, Serbia and Montenegro will become the external Schengen border and that is why effective, responsible and thorough control of the border will be a permanent task of the Croatian border police, Plenkovic said.

He added that an agreement was reached during his visit to Sarajevo on the continuation of talks on a possible change of the categories of individual border crossings and on facilitating the flow of people and goods in line with EU regulations.