BELGRADE SHARE GOAL OF JOINING E.U. - OFFICIALS BELGRADE, Sept 10 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and the Chairman of the Assembly of Serbia and Montenegro, Dragoljub Micunovic, said on Wednesday that both countries shared
the goal of joining the European Union, and that good neighbourly relations and cooperation between countries in the region could contribute to achieving this goal.
BELGRADE, Sept 10 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic and the
Chairman of the Assembly of Serbia and Montenegro, Dragoljub
Micunovic, said on Wednesday that both countries shared the goal of
joining the European Union, and that good neighbourly relations and
cooperation between countries in the region could contribute to
achieving this goal. #L#
"This exceptionally substantive and pleasant meeting has shown
that there is no such problem that cannot be solved through
dialogue," Micunovic told reporters after talks with the Croatian
president.
Micunovic stressed that it was most important to heal the wounds and
create new relations.
"We have the same goal: to join the European Union, and the better
relations we build in the region, the sooner we will enter the
European Union," he said.
"We all share the goal of a united Europe, and we can help one
another if we step up the pace towards Europe. It is up to Europe
then to recognise whether we have met their standards or not, and
whether we will be recognised by other European countries as
democratic and progressive societies," Mesic said.
The Croatian leader said that business companies on both sides had
shown that they wanted to cooperate and that the economies of both
countries were largely compatible. He added that cooperation
should be expanded to include areas such as culture and sport.
"Sport should be left to athletes, and I hope that we will not see a
repetition of incidents that occurred recently," Mesic said.
"We must face the fact that some wrong decisions were made in the
past, and that some people did some unlawful things. It is necessary
for Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks to establish individual
responsibility for crimes and name those responsible. This will
relieve communities as a whole of responsibility and open the door
to cooperation. This has to be done by us, our own justice systems,
or by the Hague tribunal," the Croatian president said.
Asked what sort of response he expected in Croatia after he and the
President of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marovic, exchanged
apologies for wrongdoings done to citizens of both countries in the
past, Mesic said that this was necessary for the sake of the future
of people in both countries, and that no attention should be paid to
those who took it maliciously.
On Wednesday afternoon, Mesic and numerous members of the Croatian
delegation are scheduled to meet the Acting President of Serbia and
President of the Serbian Parliament, Natasa Micic, Serbian Prime
Minister Zoran Zivkovic, representatives of the Croatian minority,
and representatives of organisations in charge of the return of
refugees to Croatia.
Mesic arrived in Belgrade earlier on Wednesday for a day-long
official visit, the first such visit of a Croatian head of state
since the breakup of the former Yugoslav federation.
(hina) vm