ZAGREB, January 18, 2019 – The sole parliamentary deputy of the HRAST party, Hrvoje Zekanović, and the leader of the Croatian Conservative Party, Ruža Tomašić, who is a Croatian member of the European Parliament, on Friday called on Croatia’s leadership to block the ongoing Serbia-EU membership talks, until Serbia started solving the outstanding issues in its relations with Croatia.
Zekanović suggested that one of the conditions for Serbia’s entry to the Union should be Belgrade’s recognition that Croatia was exposed to “Serbo-Chetnik” aggression and that Belgrade should pay war damages to Croatia.
Accusing Prime Minister Andrej Plenković of a lenient attitude toward that eastern neighbour, Zekanović said his party would insist on this topic of the blockade of Serbia’s accession negotiations until Plenković began behaving like a sovereigntist.
The HRAST MP said that the Croatian government had to insist that the international community made Serbia’s admission to the EU conditional on solving its outstanding issues with Croatia.
MEP Tomašić said that it was not still explained to sufficient extent to the international community what happened during the 1991-1995 Homeland War. A part of MEPs still think that it was a civil war, she warned.
Zekanović condemned an incident in Vukovar when a student of the Serb descent was attacked this past Wednesday. According to media outlets’ reports, the student was assaulted by a few masked assailants while he was staying at a bus station in Vukovar. Local Serb representatives were quoted by the media as saying that the incident was a consequence of the policies run by Mayor Ivan Penava, who recently raised the question if Croatia should keep silent about some Serb students in a Vukovar school who refused to stand for the Croatian anthem.
Zekanović said he condemned any form of violence.
More news on the relations between Croatia and Serbia can be found in the Politics section.
