Permanent Mixed Commission for Implementation of Border Transport and Co-operation Agreement between Croatia and Slovenia held its 17th session

The Permanent Mixed Commission confirmed the changes to the border regime in the border area, conditioned by Slovenia’s entry into the Schengen space, and adopted the list of future ramp locations (115) as well as the rules to be followed by persons given the ramp keys. It was pointed out that the list of locations and their co-ordinates will in no way prejudice the two countries’ border.

The Commission also determined the rules for entrusting the ramp keys. The right to a key have those persons who have the right to cross the border at said locations and/or own a real estate (or have the owner’s consent) in the border area. Croatian citizens will be given their keys by the relevant Slovenian bodies, with a previous invitation from that Croatian police station which issued the border pass, which will also hand out instructions on how to use the key, what to do is it gets lost or misused, and what is the procedure if the reasons for its use no longer apply.

The Commission is aware of the fact that approx. 700 Croatian and 1800 Slovenian citizens have the right to use the key. So far 515 keys have been given out (64 to Croatian and 451 to Slovenian citizens). Since all ramps will be locked as of 21 December 2007, the Commission invited all of the right holders to request their key as soon as possible.

The session determined that so far 10,942 border passes and 1975 agricultural slips have been issues on the Croatian side, and 16,838 border passes and 5524 agricultural slips on the Slovenian side.

The session also agreed on opening the Zamot-Osilnica border crossing for 24-hour border traffic on 7 January 2008. Conclusively, the Commission stated that it is necessary to continue with the interstate co-operation in developing border-area tourist zones.