ZAGREB, Nov 4 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic on Tuesday received the head of government of the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Riccardo Illy.
ZAGREB, Nov 4 (Hina) - President Stjepan Mesic on Tuesday received
the head of government of the Italian region of Friuli-Venezia
Giulia, Riccardo Illy. #L#
The two officials discussed economic cooperation, the construction
of highways, the ecological and fishing zone in the Adriatic, and
the creation of a transborder region that would include Italian,
Austrian, Slovene and Croatian provinces.
Illy told reporters after the talks that he informed Mesic about a
project to create a "Euroregion", whose aim was to strengthen
cooperation among the regional governments of Friuli-Venezia
Giulia and Veneto, the Austrian province of Carinthia, the Croatian
counties of Istria and Primorje-Gorski Kotar, and Slovenia.
Illy said that the project had met with "a positive response" from
the Croatian president, and that it would further encourage Croatia
on its path to the European Union. He added that some Hungarian
provinces had also shown interest in joining in the project.
The Italian official said that economic cooperation would
intensify once a regional road network was completed.
"We have already discussed this with Slovene officials during our
visit to Ljubljana, because highways in Slovenia are being
constructed at a different pace than in Croatia," he said.
"President Mesic has told us that Croatia will complete the Zagreb-
Rijeka highway and the highway leading to Montenegro within the
next two years. Construction of a highway between Italy and Croatia
is going more slowly, so we plan to exert further pressure to
complete that road," Illy said.
"I think it is in the interests of Italy, and particularly of
Friuli-Venezia Giulia, to complete the network of highways towards
Croatia as soon as possible, and we have received the support of the
Croatian leadership for that," Illy said.
Illy, a respectable businessman and former mayor of Trieste, said
that the talks with the Croatian president also focused on
encouraging direct Italian investment in Croatian companies, and
"difficulties that have arisen following Croatia's declaration of
an ecological and fishing zone in the Adriatic."
"President Mesic and (Foreign) Minister Picula stressed Croatia's
desire to discuss this issue with all countries that have access to
the Adriatic Sea," Illy said.
Illy expressed hope that tensions between Croatia and Slovenia, and
Croatia and Italy would be defused after parliamentary elections in
Croatia on November 23.
Illy had met Foreign Minister Tonino Picula earlier in the day.
(hina) vm