ZAGREB/WARSAW, June 26 (Hina) - The possibility of integrating with a wider democratic community has proved to be the strongest impetus to democratic changes in a country and the best instrument in preventing conflicts, Croatia's
Foreign Minister Tonino Picula said in Warsaw on Monday.
ZAGREB/WARSAW, June 26 (Hina) - The possibility of integrating with
a wider democratic community has proved to be the strongest impetus
to democratic changes in a country and the best instrument in
preventing conflicts, Croatia's Foreign Minister Tonino Picula
said in Warsaw on Monday.#L#
Picula addressed the "Towards the Community of Democracies" two-
day conference gathering in Poland's capital more than 70 foreign
ministers from around the world and many other senior officials,
including United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan.
According to the minister, integration has a strong impact on
people because getting to know others eliminates fear.
The concept of restricting, assessed Picula, by which the
international community for much too long responded to crises in
Southeast Europe, was reactive, directed at destructive forces in a
country. This concept saw even dictators and war criminals as
negotiating partners, it was by definition based on fear and did not
lead to lasting solutions, he added.
According to the minister, the concept of engagement on the other
hand, is based on courage, vision, persistence, is pro-active and
often brings lasting and stable changes. Its final stage consists
of a country's integration, he said, adding Croatia had experience
in both approaches.
The international community for years offered Southeast Europe a
group approach according to which the countries in the region first
had to settle mutual disagreements and then, all together, be
accepted into the European Union, said Picula.
It was a dangerous approach, based on the concept of restricting and
lacking vision, he asserted.
The minister pointed out last year's events, and this year's
changes in Croatia in particular, had led to the strengthening of an
individual approach according to which every country is evaluated
separately, by the results it has achieved.
Croatia applauds this change, he said, because it sees the
individual approach formula, with a simultaneous strengthening of
regional cooperation, as the best in achieving results in the
process of global integration.
The Warsaw conference, the first of its kind, indicates that
everybody has realised there is no alternative to democracy, Picula
said.
(hina) ha jn