The two presidents agreed that Croats in Hungary and Hungarians in Croatia enjoyed a high level of minority rights.
"The Croat minority has a special position in Hungary which shared with Croatia 800 years of common history," Madl said. "It is in our interest that Croats in Hungary feel good and be able to realise all their interests," said Madl, who participated in the event for the first time in his term.
Mesic said that minorities in Croatia and Hungary had accepted and implemented European integration values. "Croatia and Hungary have succeeded in what Scandinavian countries and the Benelux have succeeded in," Mesic said in a packed community centre in Nagykanisza.
The two presidents held a tete-a-tete meeting earlier in the day. Madl reiterated that his country supported Croatia's admission to the EU and accepted Mesic's invitation to visit Croatia next year.
He wished Mesic success in the upcoming presidential elections and extended his congratulations in advance, confident that Mesic will win another term.
It is estimated that there are 90,000 Croats in Hungary and the Croat community is one of the 13 officially recognised communities. Bilingual classes are held in 35 kindergartens, three primary schools and two classics-programme secondary schools, and Croatian is taught in some 40 schools.
There is a Croatian department on the national television and radio and the only remaining issue is the election of a Croat minority representative in the Hungarian parliament, which President Mesic believes is only a matter of time.