ZAGREB, June 26 (Hina) - By joining the Stability Pact for south-eastern Europe, Croatia has confirmed its commitment to integration with western European institutions, Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic said in Zagreb on Saturday.
Granic addressed a session of the Croatian Democratic Union's Main Committee marking the ruling party's tenth anniversary. "Croatia will never consent to any Balkan or south-eastern integration. Its place is in western European integration," he asserted. According to Deputy Foreign Minister Ivo Sanader, the results of recent elections for the European Parliament were the best denial of claims stating that Europe was heading towards socialism. "The European winners are here with us today," he said, congratulating the attending delegates of Europe's Christian democratic parties. Sanader asserted HDZ's victory at the impending parliamentary elections "will say
ZAGREB, June 26 (Hina) - By joining the Stability Pact for south-
eastern Europe, Croatia has confirmed its commitment to
integration with western European institutions, Croatian Foreign
Minister Mate Granic said in Zagreb on Saturday.
Granic addressed a session of the Croatian Democratic Union's Main
Committee marking the ruling party's tenth anniversary.
"Croatia will never consent to any Balkan or south-eastern
integration. Its place is in western European integration," he
asserted.
According to Deputy Foreign Minister Ivo Sanader, the results of
recent elections for the European Parliament were the best denial
of claims stating that Europe was heading towards socialism.
"The European winners are here with us today," he said,
congratulating the attending delegates of Europe's Christian
democratic parties.
Sanader asserted HDZ's victory at the impending parliamentary
elections "will say a clear 'no' to Croatia's return to
socialism."
Ljerka Mintas-Hodak, minister for European integration, said the
conditions Europe was setting before Croatia were sometimes
exaggerated. "We have to fulfil them, primarily for our own sake,"
she added.
Milan Kovac, minister for relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina and
its Croat-Muslim federation, said Croatia wanted to sign a trade
agreement with Bosnia, but added official Sarajevo was "stalling."
Assessing that this damaged both countries' economies, he wondered
in whose interest it was being done.
Kovac assessed the Croats' position in Bosnia as difficult. They
are left with either emigrating or self-organising to survive, as
they have been forced to do many times throughout history, he said,
and assessed as "pure utopia" the possibility of Croats becoming
Bosnians.
In Bosnia-Herzegovina, the international community does not bestow
equal treatment on Croats and Muslims, Kovac said. Croats are still
not able to safely return to their pre-war homes, not only in
Bosnia's Serb entity, but in Muslim-controlled areas as well, he
added, and pointed to the high number of Muslims who had returned to
pre-war homes in mostly Croat-populated areas in the federation.
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