ZAGREB, March 19 (Hina) - Slovenia will help Croatia as much as it can on its road towards the European Union both at the expert and political level, Slovene's European Integration Minister and future EU commissioner, Janez Potocnik,
said in Zagreb on Friday.
ZAGREB, March 19 (Hina) - Slovenia will help Croatia as much as it can
on its road towards the European Union both at the expert and
political level, Slovene's European Integration Minister and future EU
commissioner, Janez Potocnik, said in Zagreb on Friday.#L#
"Slovenia has offered and will continue to offer expert and technical
assistance to Croatia, and its political support for Croatia's entry
in the EU has never been questionable," Potocnik said at a lecture on
his country's road towards the EU.
"I am confident that Croatia has a future in Europe," the Slovene
minister said.
On 1 May, when Slovenia officially joins the EU, Potocnik will become
a member of the European Commission. In the first six months of his
membership in the EC, until a new Commission is elected, Potocnik will
work in the directorate general for enlargement, together with the
Union's Enlargement Commissioner, Guenter Verheugen.
Commenting on the Schengen border control regime, which would move to
the border between Slovenia and Croatia upon the admission of the
former into the EU, Potocnik said this would not be a wall separating
the two countries. The Schengen regime was never conceived as a wall
between nations but as a means to sever smuggling chains and prevent
other illegal activities, he added.
Potocnik said the relations between the two neighbours were better
than perceived by the public.
(Hina) ms sb