In an interview with Sunday's issue of "Primorski dnevnik", a Slovene-language paper from Trieste, Illy said that the authorities in Rome were treating separately the issue of property belonging to Italian refugees from Istria and the process of Croatia's EU integration, and that some believed that Croatia could join the EU in 2007, but that he considered 2009 a more realistic year of admission.
Illy also advocated speedier construction of roads envisaged by pan-European corridors to improve links between Trieste and Italy and East and South-East Europe and the establishment of a Euro-region composed of regions with "language minorities" from Italy, Austria, Slovenia and Croatia.
With regard to the latter issue, the former Trieste mayor announced contacts with the new Slovene government of Prime Minister Janez Jansa, but added that major progress had been made in talks with former Slovene prime minister Anton Rop and President Janez Drnovsek.
The new Slovene government has supported in principle the proposal to establish a Euro-region, but it believes that the region should cover the entire Slovenia and not only its Mediterranean part, and that Ljubljana should be its capital.