"We are not late in complying with our obligations. We have made all the mechanisms but we simply can't get people who wish to come to Croatia," he said in Brussels, where he attended a meeting of interior ministers on the migration policy and several bills, including a reform of the European asylum system, the proposal to establish a European Travel Information and Authorisation System, and a systematic control of European Union entries and exits, including of EU citizens.
Under the EU relocation and resettlement programmes, Croatia should receive 1,500 people. According to February's data, only 20 had come. The reception of another 30 people from Greece and 20 from Italy was under way.
Asked if the Balkan migration route might be opened again in the wake of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's threat that he would call off the Turkey-EU deal to stop migrants, Orepic said, "I think there is no danger. No intelligence points to that."
On Sunday, Orepic, his Bulgarian and Romanian counterparts, the Polish deputy foreign minister and Cyprus' permanent representative met with European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos to discuss the lack of visa reciprocity from the US, since the US still requires visas from those countries' citizens.
"We supported a joint approach which the European Commission will communicate," Orepic said.
The Commission said in a press release that it would continue to closely collaborate with the US on political and technical levels to find a solution to the benefit of European and American citizens and to the benefit of close strategic relations.