Southeastern Europe’s squabbling leaders moved Friday to ease the border tensions that have escalated for more than a week since Hungary sought to slow the flood of asylum-seekers through its territory.
Croatia reopened its main cargo crossing with Serbia on Friday after heated exchanges between the two former Yugoslav states. The decision came hours after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban pledged to consult with governments in the region before moving ahead with plans to build a fence along the Croatian border.
The concessions came shortly after a European Union summit on the migrant crisis, suggesting that the 28-nation bloc had become alarmed at the lack of cooperation between neighboring governments and the increasingly ugly tone of their exchanges. Just hours before Croatia announced its decision, a senior EU official appealed to authorities in Zagreb to change their minds.
“This crisis is of global dimension,” Johannes Hahn, commissioner for regional policy, told reporters in Belgrade, the Serbian capital.
Hungary’s closure of its border with Serbia on Sept. 15 triggered a domino effect that sent those fleeing their homelands scurrying from one European border to the next as they tried to reach Western Europe.
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