President of the German-Croatian Parliamentary Friendship Group talks about relations between two countries.
Croatian Prime Minister Tihomir Orešković will travel on Tuesday to Germany where he will meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This will be their first bilateral meeting since Orešković took power in January, reports Jutarnji List on February 28, 2016.
Talking about Orešković’s visit, Astrid Freudenstein, president of the German-Croatian Parliamentary Friendship Group, has expressed her wish that, despite the long process of forming the new government in Croatia, there will soon be reforms implemented which will improve the investment climate in Croatia. “The conditions for investors in Croatia could be better, and there is great interest for that in Germany”, said Freudenstein.
The president of the German-Croatian Friendship Group in the Bundestag says that they had been closely following the events after the parliamentary elections in Croatia. “There has been a certain stagnation in our relationship, but now we hope that the political situation in Croatia will be stable and that Croatian government officials will be our reliable partners”, she added. “We hope that, despite the many difficulties which accompanied the process of forming the new government, it will be possible to implement its reform program.”
She affirmed that the relations between Germany and Croatia were always at a high level, and that with the Croatian accession to the European Union they have gain additional momentum. “Last summer, Germany abolished the final restrictions on the labour market for Croatian citizens. So, now we can truly talk about the relations of the two European partners on the same level”, said Freudenstein.
As for the current refugee crisis, Freudenstein pointed out that it was necessary to achieve a higher degree of harmonization of positions at the European level. “This applies not only to the Croatian-German relations, but also to the overall European level where we should work together to solve the refugee crisis. And that can be done successfully only together with Croatia which has the same interests”, added Freudenstein.
“We need to find a way to jointly tackle the challenge. The main emphasis is on the fighting the causes which make refugees leave their countries, which needs to be followed by a reduction in the number of refugees. On this point, Croatia has been and will remain a very important partner for Germany”, Freudenstein concluded.
