ATHENS, April 17 (Hina) - The new European Union expansion round does not mean the establishment of new borders, Croatian Premier Ivica Racan said in Athens on Thursday, adding that European leaders fully supported Croatia's admission
to the EU.
ATHENS, April 17 (Hina) - The new European Union expansion round
does not mean the establishment of new borders, Croatian Premier
Ivica Racan said in Athens on Thursday, adding that European
leaders fully supported Croatia's admission to the EU. #L#
Racan made the statement at a press conference held at the end of a
European conference, an informal summit of "wider Europe", which
gathered some 40 European leaders in Athens.
"It was reiterated once again at the conference that the new
expansion of Europe does not mean the establishment of new
borders," Racan said.
"Borders and divisions are detrimental to Europe. I believe this
conference has strongly confirmed the prospect of an integrated
Europe," he added.
The premier said that he met a number of European state officials
who expressed support for Croatia's application for EU
membership.
Asked whether Croatia had been given assurances that it would join
the EU together with Romania and Bulgaria in 2007, Racan said that
the topic had been discussed "in previous days and weeks". "Which of
the assumed obligations will be fulfilled in the coming months is up
to us," he said.
Foreign Minister Tonino Picula, who attended the conference
alongside Racan, said the message they would bring back from the
conference was that "the door to the EU is not closed for Croatia".
"Croatia did not sign the admission form in Athens, but it has been
given guarantees that it can count on admission to the EU, most
certainly by the end of this decade, if it carries out the necessary
reforms," Picula said.
The informal meeting of "wider Europe" was organised by the EU's
Greek Presidency within the signing of agreements on admission by
ten future EU members from Central and East Europe, and an informal
EU summit. Apart from 15 current and ten future EU members, also
invited to the conference were the leaders of countries covered by
the Stabilisation and Association Process (Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia
and Montenegro, Macedonia and Albania), official EU candidates
(Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey), and non-EU countries (Switzerland,
Norway and Iceland), as well as future EU neighbours (Russia,
Ukraine and Moldavia).
(hina) rml