ZAGREB, February 24, 2020 – Croatia’s Foreign and European Affairs Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said on Monday in Greece that the EU had to show its unequivocal commitment to the European future of Southeast Europe, expressing his belief that the Zagreb summit in May will serve as a “a pivotal point for positive changes.”
“The European Union has to send a clear signal that we remain committed to the European future of Southeast Europe,” Grlić Radman said on the margins of a high-level day-long conference on the European prospects of the Western Balkans “From Thessaloniki to Zagreb,” which was held in that Greek coastal city.
Zagreb, the capital city of Croatia, which is currently holding the presidency of the EU, will host the EU-Western Balkans summit in early May. The first gathering of a similar format, called the EU-Western Balkans Summit, was held 21 June 2003 in Thessaloniki.
Grlić Radman, recalled that Croatia had applied for membership to the Union in 2003 during the Greece presidency of the Council of the EU and thanked Greece for its “lasting and strong support to European enlargement.”
The Croatian minister believes that the summit in Zagreb in May will “serve as a pivotal point for positive change and decision-making in the enlargement policy,” and hopes that accession negotiations will be opened for North Macedonia and Albania which were blocked in October.
He described the new methodology proposed by the European Commission announced early February as a “good and positive step,” and added that Croatia will continue to advocate a “credible and efficient policy of enlargement based on merits and fulfilment of all criteria.”
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