BRATISLAVA, April 27, (WEBNOVINY) — Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Mikulas Dzurinda together with his Austrian colleague Michael Spindelegger visited Croatia on Tuesday in order to encourage their Croatian partners in their EU-integration efforts. They met President Ivo Josipovic, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor, and Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Gordan Jandrokovic. Mikulas Dzurinda told SITA that he came up with the idea of a joint visit, as they already visited Croatia together in the past. The idea came after an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers, where also their counterparts from the candidate countries were invited and Dzurinda saw “the despair in the eyes of their Croatian colleague”.
Both ministers also went to see whether Croatia fulfills the integration criteria and closes chapters in accession negotiation in addition to “strongly encouraging” the Croats, as Mikulas Dzurinda put it. “I don’t think they need technical assistance,” summarized the minister, adding that Croatia has managed to handle the process. According to him, both ministers wanted to give a signal to Croatian leaders to be united; to the citizens of Croatia who are frustrated by the reforms that they should not give up; and to their European partners to continue supporting Croatia in their reform efforts, as there is no meaning in abandoning EU enlargement because of economic, political or ecological problems. They also wanted to give a signal to the other western Balkans countries which could be encouraged by their neighbor’s success.
Croatia applied for EU membership in 2003 and became an official candidate a year later. Accession negotiations began in October 2005. The country plans to close all negotiation chapters and thus formally close the negotiations until the end of June. This would make a new chapter possible: preparing the accession treaty which would also set the date for accepting Croatia into the EU. Croatia can then organize a referendum on accession. “An important political decision lies before us,” enclosed Dzurinda.
On their way home, Dzurinda and Spindelegger agreed to send a letter to European Commission Chairman Jose Manuel Barosso, EU Commissioner for Enlargement Stefan Fule together with all their EU countries’ colleagues. For some, accepting Croatia and closing the negotiations until the end of June is a more important objective than for others. Both ministers also plan individual talks with foreign ministers who share their passion for Croatian EU accession.
According to the Croatian Daily Jutarnji List poll, after Croatian generals Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac were sentenced for war crimes, the support of Croatian public for EU integration reached a new low of only 23 percent, 95 percent of the citizens considering the sentenced unfair. In Croatia, Gotovina is considered a hero of the Yugoslav war. However, his surrender was one of the conditions for allowing Croatia to become member of the EU.
SITA