Ten years ago a new world opened to us, especially to those who were used to hard frontiers from the Cold War period. We were able to travel through almost all the then members of the European Union without border controls, with the exception of Ireland, the United Kingdom, and some other EU countries, and also through Norway, Liechtenstein, and Switzerland. Free movement of goods and services was enabled as well. It was a great civilisation achievement of the European Union, which turned its attention only towards its external borders. Slovenia was then at the outskirts of the EU, and it still is, as Croatia is not a member of the Schengen area yet.

Unfortunately, it all crumbled with the first serious crisis, namely with the arrival of masses of refugees and economic migrants into the European Union in 2015. The Schengen regime simply didn't hold. Also Slovenia, in spite of critiques, protected its south border with technical obstacles, which is a more pleasing, but also less truthful description of barbed wire. Some states, namely Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Austria, reintroduced border controls. Our neighbour in the north won't abolish it, regardless of the protests from Slovenia, and especially because of the new Austrian government, thus strongly impairing the effects of the Schengen regime on us.