(ANSA) - UDINE - ''The EU should be united in dealing with the migration crisis and should develop a cohesive asylum system in Europe'', said Iztok Mirosic, Slovenia's state secretary at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, speaking with ANSA New Europe on the sidelines of the 13th edition of the International Forum of the Aquileian Euroregion ''Europe Trembles'', recently held in Udine and organised by Mitteleuropa Association. ''But we should not forget that Slovenia, along with Italy - Mirosic continued - was the first EU member country to send a political message to the rest of Europe, underlining that migration crisis cannot be solved by any individual state, but this issue must be dealt with through a joint action''. Mirosic then reminded that ''my country sent a vessel to take part in the Mare Nostrum mission. This decision was made not in order to show the importance of Slovenian navy but to send a clear political message to the EU: this major issue should be tackled at European level''. Then he added, ''we are now going in right direction, we are building a shared asylum system, there are still some problems to be solved, since there is a divide between Eastern and Western Europe regarding solidarity in burden-sharing of quotas.

Slovenia is participating in burden-sharing and we receive refugees from Italy and Greece. Moreover - Mirosic continued - we are also tackling the root causes of migration crisis, in Africa, with European funds. We do completely agree with EU commissioner Navracsics that security matters should only be tackled at a European level''. Talking about EU enlargment to Western Balkans, Mirosic said that ''Slovenia fully supports the enlargment process, and my country launched the Brdo process along with Croatia for reconciliation in the whole region, and now backs up the Berlin process to help the countries make progress on the path towards membership. The Eu is working hard on this process, even the EC president Juncker mentioned the opportunity for Western Balkan countries to join the EU. Now I think that all the political elites of the region should do all they need to meet standards and set benchmarks, in order to speed up the enlargement process. From Slovenia's side, enlargement can count on full support''. (ANSA).