Dear all,
It is a pleasure to be in Slovenia once again and I would like to thank Minister Vesna Györkös Žnidar for her warm welcome.
We had the chance to discuss many common priority issues today that I will also have the chance later to raise with Prime Minister Miro Cerar.
Slovenia has played and continues to play a key role in our joint efforts to better manage migration, our external borders and to increase security across the EU and fight terrorism.
On all these issues, Slovenia plays a crucial role in the European Union, and also in the region of the Western Balkans.
Thanks to the collective efforts of all our Member States and our EU agencies, we are not where we were two years ago when it comes to migration.
We are now on the right track to achieve sustainable migration management.
Now is the moment to build on the progress that we have achieved.
We discussed today the need to step up the reforms for the Common European Asylum System.
We notably urgently need a new Dublin system that functions effectively and fairly both in times of calm and crisis.
I also take the opportunity to commend Slovenia’s efforts on relocation.
The first priority is to relocate as soon as possible the remaining eligible applicants present in Italy and Greece and I continue to count on Slovenia to contribute to this effort.
But we also need to invest more in resettlement, and I hope Slovenia will help us to jointly open more legal pathways for those needing protecting.
We are ready to financially and operationally support a further 50,000 resettlements over the next 2 years.
On Schengen, we are fully committed to safeguard and preserve the benefits of free movement in the Schengen area, something which I know Slovenia also feels very strongly about.
In other words, the absence of internal border control constitutes the very essence of Schengen and any reintroduction of temporary border controls is and should continue to be an exception and a matter of last resort.
What we have proposed recently is to adapt the rules to precisely maintain this essence, but equally to be suited for the current needs to respond to evolving and persistent serious threats to public policy or internal security.
In parallel, we have introduced stronger procedural safeguards to ensure that if border controls at internal borders are necessary there is still the least possible impact on free movement.
Many of Slovenia’s concerns have been taken into account, and we hope to quickly find a satisfactory agreement on the proposal.
Minister Žnidar and I also discussed key security challenges as demonstrated once again with the latest attacks in Spain, Finland and France.
The Commission has supported Member States in their efforts over the past year in tackling terrorism and organised crime and the means that support them, and in strengthening our defences and building resilience against those threats.
Next week, I will present a package with:
• Measures to support Member States in protecting public spaces,
• Actions to cut off access to the means used by terrorists to prepare and carry out attacks such as dangerous substances or terrorist financing,
• and Measures on countering radicalisation
All these elements are key to building a genuine and effective Security Union in Europe.
I wish to thank Slovenia once again for being a true European partner and playing an important role on all these issues, not just inside the European Union, but also for its neighbouring partners in the Western Balkans.