Foreign Minister Kovač: Croatia Is Not Blocking Serbia

According to Croatian Foreign Minister, Croatia is helping Serbia to become more mature.

Croatia is not blocking Serbia on its path towards European integration, but is helping it to transform and become mature for EU membership, and that is useful for long-term partnerships between Croatia and Serbia, said Croatian Foreign Minister Miro Kovač on Monday in Warsaw, reports Jutarnji List on May 9, 2016.

Kovač was a guest at the forum dedicated to Croatia as the youngest member of the European Union and he talked about Croatian policy towards refugees, the election of the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the security and stability in Europe, and the Croatian position towards the accession of countries of Southeastern Europe to the European Union.

Responding to a question from the audience whether Croatia was blocking Serbia, Kovač said that Serbia formally started negotiations in January 2014, but that the first two chapters were opened in December 2015. “Do you know why? It was about Kosovo. In fact, Germany and the United Kingdom insisted that Serbia has to open a dialogue and establish relations with Kosovo. Have you ever heard anyone in Serbia or in the European Union talk about the blockade of Serbia? You did not!” said Kovač.

“Therefore, Croatia is helping Serbia to meet the criteria which are key for the most important chapter in the negotiations, and that is the chapter covering justice, fundamental rights and freedoms. Croatia has a very friendly approach”, said the Minister.

Kovač said that the Dutch presidency of the EU had the ambition to open Chapter 23 in June. “It is still possible, but we want to get some things incorporated in negotiating benchmarks”, said the Minister. “Basically, Croatia is helping Serbia to transform and become mature for EU membership. I can promise you that we will soon be close to a solution”, he said.

“The negotiating process is difficult and takes a lot of time. You have to change just as Croatia had to change during its negotiations from 2005 to 2011, and it is useful in the long run”, he said, adding that he hoped “that the next Serbian government would be pro-European and that Serbia will remain on the European path”.

Responding to a question about who will be the new Secretary General of the United Nations, Kovač said that the “procedure was known but it would eventually be a decision of the Security Council”. “I think that the new Secretary General will be from Eastern Europe, but only if there is a consensus within the group”, he added.

 

Subscribe to our newsletter

the fields marked with * are required

Email: *
First name:
Last name:
Gender:	Male Female
Country:
Birthday:	[DD] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 [MM] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 [YYYY] 1924 1925 1926 1927 1928 1929 1930 1931 1932 1933 1934 1935 1936 1937 1938 1939 1940 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 1949 1950 1951 1952 1953 1954 1955 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023

Please don't insert text in the box below!