BRDO PRI KRANJU, Jan 30(Hina) - Hungary, Italy and Slovenia on Friday expressed their support for the speedy integration of Croatia into the European Union and NATO.
BRDO PRI KRANJU, Jan 30(Hina) - Hungary, Italy and Slovenia on Friday
expressed their support for the speedy integration of Croatia into the
European Union and NATO.#L#
The support was expressed by the prime ministers of the three
countries in a joint final declaration at a quadrilateral meeting in
the Slovene town of Brdo pri Kranju, which was also attended by the
head of the Croatian government.
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said that if Croatia succeeded in
its efforts to join the EU as soon as possible, it might have a
positive effect on the other countries of Southeast Europe, which in
turn would contribute to the stabilisation of the region as a sort of
"success story".
Opening a joint press conference after the talks, Slovene Prime
Minister Anton Rop said that support to Croatia's efforts to join the
EU and NATO was one of the most important topics discussed at the
meeting.
"We support and welcome all the efforts that Croatia has made and is
yet to make on that road," Rop said.
Rop said that a series of successful projects promoting economic
cooperation, transport and security had been initiated over the last
year during Slovenia's presidency of this organisation known as the
Quadrilateral Initiative.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi announced he would hold
separate talks with Sanader on the subject of Italian citizens who had
once lived in Croatia and the multilateral protection of the Adriatic
Sea. He expressed no doubt as to Italy's interest in Croatia's speedy
admission into the EU and NATO.
"We are the most fervent supporters of Croatia's admission into the
European Union, as we have also been in the case of Slovenia and
Hungary," Berlusconi said.
The Italian prime minister particularly stressed the importance of the
Quadrilateral Initiative and other regional initiatives in economic
cooperation, saying that Italy and other Adriatic countries could
encourage entrepreneurship by relying on human resources in the
region.
Berlusconi also stressed the importance of establishing road links
among the Adriatic countries via pan- European corridors nos. 10 and
8, and of securing European funds for the construction of Pan-European
Corridor No. 5. He added that for the latter corridor a secretariat
had already been established in Trieste and that a competent European
coordinator would soon be appointed to run the project.
Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy confirmed that the meeting
had expressed support for Croatia's EU membership bid, saying that
Croatia should meet the conditions as soon as possible so that the
accession process could start.
Sanader said that the Republic of Ireland's presidency of the EU in
the first half of this year would be a very important period for
Croatia because during that time it would expect clear messages from
Brussels.
Sanader added that in spring Croatia expected a positive opinion on
the start of accession talks while in June it expected to be granted
membership candidate status.
(Hina) vm sb