Davor Bozinovic

There was celebration and joy on both sides of the Slovenian-Croatian border as Croatia joined the Schengen area and adopted the euro on 1 January. More than 30 years after the countries broke away from Yugoslavia, their citizens are once again using the same currency and can cross the border freely.

Deputy Prime Minister for Public Order and Security and Minister of Internal Affairs Ivan Demerdzhiev took part in a meeting dedicated to the enlargement of Schengen in Prague at the initiative of the Czech Presidency.

Obrežje – Interior Minister Tatjana Bobnar stressed as she met her Croatian counterpart Davor Božinović in Obrežje, east, on Monday that Slovenia absolutely supports Croatia’s entry into the Schengen zone. Božinović said this is in both countries’s interest, which Bobnar confirmed.

Croatian police say they are investigating death threats made to Boris Dezulovic, a well-known Croatian journalist and columnist, over a column he published recently deriding the official cult surrounding Vukovar - the eastern town besieged and occupied by Serbs in the war of independence - whose provocative title has raised hackles.

After a number of European media outlets published disturbing footage of a violent migrant pushback on Croatian territory last week, government officials condemned the incident - but insisted it was an act of individuals, not of the police as an institution.

Around 30 health workers who do not have the now mandatory COVID-19 vaccination certificates, and refuse to be tested, gathered in Croatia's capital, Zagreb, on Monday, protesting against the requirement, Index reported.

Brussels – European Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson will start a two-day visit to Slovenia on Thursday to discuss the country’s EU presidency preparations. She intends to raise the issue of media freedom and pluralism as well. Slovenia should not underestimate the risk to its international reputation when it comes to this, Johansson has told the STA.

Croatia's Interior Minister, Davor Bozinovic, condemned a failed visit by a group of Italian MEPs to the Croatia-Bosnia border as having "the obvious intention to damage Croatia's reputation".

A minister in a Bosnian canton bordering Croatia said the EU member state had forcibly returned over 7,000 migrants and refugees to Bosnia last year, asking why his own country had not done the same to its neighbours.

Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic has already announced new measures for Monday. "This week, we will specify some things so that we can announce the framework a few days before the decision expires, which is on the 21st," Bozinovic said.
Health Minister Vili Beros expects the death toll to start falling in just three weeks.