SARAJEVO, April 28 (Hina) - Foreign ministers of countries of the Adriatic region gathered in Sarajevo on Monday to promote the start of a new project of regional cooperation financed by the European Commission, Italy's government and
seven provinces on the Adriatic.
SARAJEVO, April 28 (Hina) - Foreign ministers of countries of the
Adriatic region gathered in Sarajevo on Monday to promote the start
of a new project of regional cooperation financed by the European
Commission, Italy's government and seven provinces on the
Adriatic. #L#
At the conference Croatia is represented by Foreign Minister Tonino
Picula. Attending are Italian and Albanian Foreign Ministers
Franco Frattini and Ilir Meta, and Montenegrin Foreign Minister
Dragisa Burzan.
The programme dubbed "Interreg III A" was initiated with the aim to
better connect countries of the eastern Adriatic and their further
stabilisation as a precondition for joining the European Union.
Financial support of EUR101 million has been envisaged for various
projects in the fields of energy supply, development of small and
middle-scale entrepreneurship, culture, environment protection
and infrastructure. The funds are to be spent by 2006.
Italy's Frattini said in his speech at the Sarajevo conference that
his government was especially interested in stimulating the
strengthening of stability and economic progress of countries of
the South-east of Europe.
This stand is the result of the Italian government's option to
support, as much as possible, decentralised forms of cooperation
with countries bordering with the European Union.
Croatia's Picula applauded the initiation of the Interreg III A
project.
"We have realised that regional cooperation yields the most
efficient results if carried out through concrete projects. One
such concrete and practical initiative is Interreg III," Picula
said in his speech.
He recalled that there was good cooperation between Croatia and
four Italian regions, while at this moment Italy was Croatia's
biggest foreign trade partner.
Picula expressed conviction that planned projects would contribute
to the stabilisation of the entire region and the strengthening of
good neighbourly relations, which would have an important role in
the final accession of east Adriatic countries to the European
Union.
Picula also said that Croatia appreciated Italy's efforts in
Brussels to have projects of cross-border cooperation financed
through the CARDS programme.
He said Croatia had been thinking for a long time about concrete
projects, such as the construction of a highway connecting Rijeka
and Trieste and the Adriatic-Ionian highway, which would fully
connect the Italian coast with that of the eastern Adriatic.
The Croatian foreign minister urged countries of the region to
discuss at a greater degree the European dimension of their
cooperation, and stressed that he was convinced Croatia would end
all preparations for drawing closer to full membership in the EU by
2006.
(hina) lml sb