(ANSA) - GORIZIA - About 150 people, led by the president of the Province of Gorizia Enrico Gherghetta, have laid bouquets of flowers near the barbed wire fence in Dragonja today, at the border crossing between Slovenia and Croatia. The barbed wire fence was set up by the Slovenian authorities in order to stem the flow of asylum seekers entering the country through the Balkan land route.

Alongside Gherghetta, the mayors of eleven municipalities in the province of Gorizia, Maurizio Tremul, president of the Italian community in Slovenia and Croatia, and Fulvio Radin, MP who represents the Italian minority in the Croatian Parliament. ''This is not the Europe we want - Gherghetta said -; since the beginning we have believed in the idea of EU enlargement, in accordance with a precise vision of society, values and rights, which are now being partially betrayed: we are facing a society which is not inclusive, but exclusive, and betrays the essential European values''. According to Gherghetta, ''in front of this barbed wire, we can assess the gaps in the European Union: the EU is not only based on single currency, but also on a shared welfare, environment, energy policy, army. At the heart of the Union, there should be a European and cosmopolitan citizen. When you put up new barriers, just like what happens today, you betray the true spirit of Europe and you go back to the situation that has caused two world wars'', he stated.(ANSA).