ROME, July 4 (Hina) - Croatian President Stipe Mesic supported in Rome on Tuesday French President Jacques Chirac's suggestion for a meeting between the European Union and countries from the former Yugoslav federation which had made
the biggest progress in democratic development. Mesic suggested that countries surrounding the region also attend the meeting. Wishing to contribute to the consolidation of peace and the strengthening of cooperation in the entire region, I believe it is reasonable to invite not only the countries which emerged from the break-up of the former Yugoslavia, including Slovenia of course, but also their immediate neighbours who, in different ways, are interested in the stability of the region, President Mesic said in a lecture on Croatia's position and its prospects held at LUISS, Rome's Free International University for Social Studies.
ROME, July 4 (Hina) - Croatian President Stipe Mesic supported in
Rome on Tuesday French President Jacques Chirac's suggestion for a
meeting between the European Union and countries from the former
Yugoslav federation which had made the biggest progress in
democratic development. Mesic suggested that countries
surrounding the region also attend the meeting.
Wishing to contribute to the consolidation of peace and the
strengthening of cooperation in the entire region, I believe it is
reasonable to invite not only the countries which emerged from the
break-up of the former Yugoslavia, including Slovenia of course,
but also their immediate neighbours who, in different ways, are
interested in the stability of the region, President Mesic said in a
lecture on Croatia's position and its prospects held at LUISS,
Rome's Free International University for Social Studies.#L#
At the beginning of his lecture, President Mesic recalled the
difficult path of Croatia's emancipation, the defence from an
aggression whose aim had been to create an ethnically pure Greater
Serbia, and the political changes which ensued after Croatia's
parliamentary and presidential elections earlier this year.
Croatia succeeded in fighting the aggression and won in the
conflict with non-democratic Serbia and the Yugoslav People's Army
which backed it, Mesic said, but added Croatia had lost too much
time on a social and economic modernisation which had been
necessary.
The January 3 parliamentary elections demonstrated that Croatia's
citizens were not willing to follow a path focused on the present
and the past, but not leading to the future. I am proud of the
residents of my country, because they are evidently willing to bear
the burden of economic restructuring which, in the first stage,
will result in large-scale lay-offs, but will later certainly
generate new jobs and more modern working environments, said
President Mesic.
Even though Croatia's authorities and citizens are making huge
efforts, a fast and efficient transformation of the economy calls
for both the knowledge and the capital of our foreign partners, and
here I particularly mean Italy, he added.
Mesic said he was sure projects on the building of a highway running
along the Adriatic-Ionian coastline and a gas pipeline from Norway,
across Poland and Central Europe, to the Adriatic Sea represented a
solid foundation for further strengthening economic and political
relations between Croatia and Italy.
Speaking about political changes, President Mesic said Croatia's
citizens had demonstrated they wanted to live in a community whose
identity was not based primarily on religious or ethnic unity, but
on the will of its members to share the same destiny. New Croatia is
therefore not afraid of the return of its residents of Serb
nationality who genuinely want to fit in Croatian society and share
the destiny of their fellow citizens, he added.
Speaking about Croatia's foreign affairs, President Mesic, among
else, pointed to the fact that the situation in the region could not
be fully stabilised as long as Slobodan Milosevic was in power in
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The international community unanimously applauded the
determination of Croatia's authorities to implement a new
political orientation, not hesitating to award it. In late May,
Croatia signed an agreement on joining NATO's Partnership for Peace
programme, and in the autumn at the latest should commence
negotiations with Brussels on an agreement on stabilisation and
association with the EU. As we can see, our country is on the best
road to achieve its key strategic objectives, namely full
integration with NATO and the EU, the President said.
But let us not fool ourselves and yield to dangerous euphoria, he
cautioned. Croatia will have to roll up its sleeves and work hard to
become a serious candidate for full membership in European and
Atlantic structures. I honestly believe Croatia has the requisite
will, energy and potential, and am especially happy that our
European partners share the same opinion, Mesic said.
I consider as personal praise the initiative of our friend, French
President Chirac, to organise in Zagreb a summit between the EU and
former Yugoslav countries which have made the biggest progress in
democratic development. I believe it is very important that the
region, which we all expect to become stable as soon as possible,
occupies such an important place in the thoughts of many European
statesmen, and would like to take this opportunity to voice my
support to President Chirac's suggestion, which the European
Council endorsed at its last session in Feira, binding competent
bodies of the EU, the Council and the Commission, to begin with
preparations for the summit.
With regard to the participants in the summit, wishing to
contribute to the consolidation of peace and the strengthening of
cooperation in the entire region, I believe it is reasonable to
invite not only the countries which emerged from the break-up of the
former Yugoslavia, including Slovenia of course, but also their
immediate neighbours who, in different ways, are interested in the
stability of the region. We could invite Italy and Greece, both are
EU members and know the region very well, Turkey, a layman state of
Muslim character playing a stabilising role in Southeast Europe,
particularly in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as well as Hungary, Romania,
Bulgaria, and Albania, countries clearly orientated towards
Brussels and indirectly affected by the regime of sanctions against
FRY, said President Mesic.
It seems logical to me to involve these countries in the Zagreb
summit, which we all think should contribute to the europeisation
and stabilisation of the region which, clearly, implies the
normalisation of the situation in Serbia, said Mesic. I have no
doubt whatsoever in the positive effects this summit would have on
the development of internal affairs in FRY. Democratic
participants from Serbia would certainly be given additional
legitimacy, so important to them in relation to their fellow
residents, of whom a major section, unfortunately, remains blinded
by the retrograde and anti-European ideology of Belgrade's current
regime, said Mesic.
The challenge for the EU, which France presides until year's end, is
therefore big. I am, however, sure that with the requisite effort,
it is possible to achieve significant success in stabilising
Europe's southeast, which is one of the objectives France has
stated to achieve during its presidency over the EU, said the
Croatian President.
To achieve that, it is certainly necessary to use the know-how and
experience of our neighbour Italy, a state we have established
direct political and economic ties with. In this respect, I would
like to stress that Croatian and Italian citizens for some time now
have been able to cross the inter-state border with identity cards.
Croatia has established the same border regime with Slovenia, and
recently with Hungary. I dare say the situation in the broader
region will have been genuinely stabilised and normalised once
border regimes like these become a generally adopted standard, the
Croatian President concluded in his lecture at Rome's LUISS
university.
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