Plenković and Golob discuss expanding Krk LNG Terminal and Krško Nuclear Power Plant

This is the second meeting of the two prime ministers since the Slovenian PM’s election in June. Their first meeting took place in August. The focus of today's talks was on the energy sector, illegal migration, economic cooperation and the situation in the Western Balkans.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković was on a working visit to neighboring Slovenia on Tuesday, where he was received by his host, Slovenian Prime Minister Robert Golob. This is their second meeting since Golob's election in June, with their first meeting taking place in August. The focus of today's talks was on the energy sector, illegal migration, economic cooperation and the situation in the Western Balkans: “I want to say that I am pleased that we are continuing our excellent dialogue with Slovenia during the mandate of Prime Minister Golob. We want to further advance Croatian - Slovenian relations and make the atmosphere in our relations even closer and even more friendly, to the betterment of our respective citizens. Not only with the goal of resolving open issues, but also to further develop political and economic cooperation. And in this regard of specific importance are the energy sector and the fight against illegal migration in the context of the various crises we have been confronted with in recent years.”

For his part, Prime Minister Golob said that all of the preconditions are in place for the signing of an agreement of solidarity between the two countries in the area of energy, especially in terms of natural gas, and that this will be signed at the first available opportunity. He went on to say that with regard to Croatia's Liquefied Natural Gas terminal on the island of Krk, Slovenia is interested in the expansion of the LNG terminal, with the intention of making it a special junction for central Europe so that Slovenia, along with the remaining neighboring countries, can participate in that. With regard to the Krško nuclear power plant in Slovenia, which is co-owned by Croatia and Slovenia, they discussed the common interest of both sides in building a new bloc in the nuclear power plant, in order to expand production. However, both countries are now waiting on whether or not the European Union will categorize nuclear energy as a so-called clean technology.

With regard to fighting illegal migration, Prime Minister Golob called for cooperation between Croatia, Slovenia and Italy. He noted that unfortunately Slovenia has registered an increase in illegal migration through its territory over the past year, but added that both Slovenia and Croatia are lucky in this regard as they are only transit countries as the target destination of illegal migrants is Italy. He said that for this reason it is in all three country's interests to establish a top flight monitoring system to monitor the corridors of illegal migration, calling on all three countries to work together in establishing a surveillance network spanning from the Bosnian border with Croatia and on into Italy.

Source: HRT