Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Sarec said on Thursday that Croatia's accession to the Schengen Area depended primarily on the security criteria Croatia must meet "and not on Slovenia."

“Croatia’s Schengen entry doesn’t depend on Slovenia but on the evaluation commission,” he told Slovenian Radio, adding that security was the “exclusive” and main criterion for the evaluation.

That doesn’t depend on us but it’s true that I am concerned about the security situation on Croatia’s borders with Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarec said, adding that Croatia should protect the EU’s external border better so that illegal migrants did not cross Croatia into Slovenia and the current Schengen Area.

Asked if Slovenia, after Croatia met the technical requirements for joining Schengen, would politically block the accession because of their border arbitration dispute, Sarec said “it’s impossible to talk about that at this moment.”