ZAGREB, Feb 5 (Hina) - Hungary sees Croatia as a full member of the European Union in 2007 and will continue to support its bids to accomplish this goal, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said in Zagreb on Wednesday after talks
with his Hungarian counterpart, Laszlo Kovacs.
ZAGREB, Feb 5 (Hina) - Hungary sees Croatia as a full member of the
European Union in 2007 and will continue to support its bids to
accomplish this goal, Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said
in Zagreb on Wednesday after talks with his Hungarian counterpart,
Laszlo Kovacs. #L#
In a joint statement for the press after the meeting, Picula said
such a stance by Hungary was especially encouraging because it was a
neighbouring country which had been invited to join the European
Union as full member at the end of last year.
Recalling that the two countries enjoyed continuous good relations
based on political understanding and good economic cooperation
with the trade which is likely, according to an estimate, to exceed
400 million US dollars this year, Picula said that Hungary was
interested in privatisation investments in Croatia. He added he and
his guest also spoke about joint investments into infrastructure.
They discussed the final regulation and documentation concerning
the border-line between the two countries, which "should be
documented in a modern way, especially in the light of the fact that
the EU is coming to Croatia's northern border", said Picula.
"It is very important to Hungary that Croatia becomes as soon as
possible a part of the same associations and security systems in
which Hungary is or will soon be," Kovacs told reporters.
He stressed that Hungary "concretely supported Croatia's accession
into the EU in the next wave of expansion in 2007 together with
Bulgaria and Rumania".
He is convinced that Croatia is able to fulfil all conditions for
membership by then.
The Hungarian minister confirmed good economic cooperation between
the two countries, pointing to the great interest of Hungarian
investors in the Croatian market.
Apart from the investment of small and middle-scale companies,
Kovacs mentioned the interest of Hungary's oil company MOL in
participating in the privatisation Croatia's Ina, but so that the
process went both ways, meaning that Ina would also become co-owner
of MOL.
Kovacs also mentioned the importance of regional cooperation of the
two countries and transborder cooperation within Euro-regions.
As did Picula, Kovacs expressed satisfaction with Zagreb's and
Budapest's excellent treatment of the Hungarian and Croatian
minority respectively.
(hina) lml sb