The conference is called "Croatia Summit 2012 – State Building and the EU Experience." It will be attended by Croatia's President Ivo Josipovic, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic and Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic, Albanian PM Sali Berisha, Kosovo PM Hashim Thaci, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, Polish PM Donald Tusk, Bulgarian PM Boyko Borisov, Montenegrin PM Igor Luksic, Romanian PM Victor Ponta, Slovak PM Robert Fico, and NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen. Serbia has not confirmed its attendance.
The conference will discuss the political, security and economic aspects and possibilities of building a stable and prosperous future in Southeast Europe and the European Union's broader neighbourhood.
Three panels are envisaged - the European perspective as a generator of social and political change; state building in post-conflict societies; and partnership and institution building in the southern Mediterranean.
At Pusic's invitation, the discussions will include representatives of Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, countries caught up in the Arab Spring. Inviting them to Dubrovnik, Pusic said this would further establish Croatia internationally as a factor of stabilisation in the southern Mediterranean.
Announcing the summit upon returning from Istanbul, where she attended a Friends of Syria meeting, Pusic said that based on the experience Croatia had gained in its accession negotiations with the EU, neighbouring countries such as Serbia and Bosnia as well as the five Arab countries could learn something about the building of democratic institutions.
The annual Croatia Summit conferences, which draw the prime ministers from the region, the EU and the U.S., began in 2006. Last year's gathering focused on the completion of transition in Southeast Europe.