Athens
, 18 February 2010
Mr. G. JANDROKOVIC: Ladies and gentlemen, I would firstly like to greet and welcome all of you here very cordially and express my pleasure at the visit and the arrival of my colleague Mr. Dimitrios Droutsas to the inauguration of the 3rd Croatian President. We had very open and friendly discussions and we concluded that our relations are good, that there are no open issues between the two countries and we both expressed the wish to further broaden and deepen and improve these relations.
I also expressed gratitude to the Greek side for their support to Croatia’s joining the NATO, and I also thanked them for the strong support that we enjoy from the Greek side for our accession to the EU and the conclusion of our negotiations. We also talked about the situation in the Southeastern Europe and we concluded that it is necessary that all countries in the region have clear Euro-Atlantic prospects and also that they fulfill the criteria for the accession to the EU, accede after that, and of course those who wish to, also join NATO.
Both Greece and Croatia will do everything in their power to help and assist countries in the region to join the Euroatlantic integration and also for the public in those countries to feel that there are prospects of soon becoming members of the European family.
Mr. D. DROUTSAS: First of all, thank you very much for this very warm welcome. It is of course a pleasure and honor for me to be today here in Zagreb on this important day and officially represent the Greek government at the inauguration ceremony of the President of Croatia.
It was a good opportunity to once again confirm the excellent level of the bilateral relations between Greece and Croatia. The support of Greece to Croatia’s NATO accession and also our support to Croatia’s EU accession process is well known and sincere, and we are very much looking forward to welcoming Croatia very soon as a full member in our European family.
Croatia is for us a real model and success story for the whole region. As we have discussed, it is also very important to give to the whole region of Southeast Europe and the Western Balkans a real perspective for EU accession.
In this respect we also had the opportunity to discuss an initiative that has been put forward by Greece, what we call “Agenda 2014” for the European accession process and prospects of the countries of the Western Balkans. We believe that membership in the EU is the best guarantor for everlasting peace and stability in our region, and in that respect we have put forward this idea to set a target date for the accession of the countries of the Western Balkans to the EU by 2014.
2014 is a very symbolic date; it is 100 years after the beginning of the 1st World War, which one can regard as the root of the open conflicts that we are still facing in the Balkans. In this respect, the EU, as the most successful peace project, can play a crucial role in promoting peace and stability in the region by accepting these countries to become its members.
Of course, a precondition for EU accession is the fulfillment of all criteria needed, but we believe that we have to give to these countries a real perspective and something even such as a symbolic date. And again in these efforts I think Croatia can play a crucial role and I am very happy that we agreed to cooperate further in this respect and promote this idea of Agenda 2014.
I would like once again to thank you very much for this warm welcome and the good talks we had, and may I also invite you cordially to visit Greece, to visit Athens, whenever you find the time.