During the meeting, Mesic said that the war in Croatia had left a large number of victims, a destroyed economy and infrastructure, and much hatred. He added that Slobodan Milosevic was the one who started the war, deceiving the world by claiming that he was fighting for Yugoslavia, and he did with Serbs, whom he promised life in a single state.
Speaking about European integration, Mesic said that efforts should be made to open borders and not let them be changed. Croatia wants to be the leader in this part of Europe, he said, adding that minorities were a factor connecting countries. He repeated that it was necessary to eliminate the causes of terrorism and environments generating terrorism.
The attendants were interested in what Croatian authorities were doing so that their citizens could accept European principles of a multicultural and multinational society. Mesic said that it was necessary to work on individualising guilt as well as on building democracy and civil society.
"People must be equal in their rights, regardless of their religion or nationality," he said.
The guests were also interested in what Croatia was doing to fight corruption, to which Mesic answered that the functioning of the rule of law, police and the judiciary was very important in dealing with that problem.
The President was thanked by Peter Weinberger, head of the programme. Apart from Croatia, the attendants also visited Bosnia-Herzegovina and they will leave for Serbia and Montenegro today.