Foreign Minister Miro Kovač talks about EU enlargement.
Croatian Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Miro Kovač said that Croatia wanted to connect EU member states with countries which have not yet entered the Union, and added that it was necessary to create better links between member states of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative whose presidency Croatia currently holds, reports Index.hr on May 12, 2016.
“Croatia, as the presiding country of the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative, has the ambition to connect the EU member states and countries which are not yet members of the European Union”, said Kovač in Dubrovnik after a meeting with foreign ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania Igor Crnadak and Ditmir Bushati, ahead of the annual Forum of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR).
EUSAIR includes eight countries, four members of the European Union (Croatia, Greece, Italy and Slovenia), and four which would like to enter the Union (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia).
Asked what he expected from the EUSAIR forum in Dubrovnik, Croatian Foreign Minister stressed that the participating countries wanted to do something some positive for their citizens. “We want better transportation links so that our economies could be better connected. We want to do something to protect the environment”, said Kovač.
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Igor Crndak said that his country was participating in various regional initiatives. “We believe that our main strategic foreign policy goal is the EU membership, but that goal is impossible to achieve without good relations in the region”, said Crndak. He pointed out that activities in the Adriatic-Ionic Initiative were extremely important for Bosnia and Herzegovina and that the country expected positive effects in terms of development, reducing unemployment and improvement in economic situation.
