The President of the Croatian Parliament Mr Vladimir Šeks accompanied by his wife led a delegation of the Croatian Parliament to the Official return visit to Ireland, upon the invitation by the Ceann Comhairle Rory O´Hanlon TD.
The President of the Croaitan Parliament Mr Vladimir Šeks accompanied by his wife led a delegation of the Croatian Parliament to the Official return visit to Ireland, upon the invitation by the Ceann Comhairle Rory O´Hanlon TD. The delegation included Mrs ?urda Adlešic (Vice-President of the Croatian Parliament), Mr Neven Mimica (Chairman of the Committee on European Integration) and Josip Sesar (Secretary of the Croatian Parliament).
The visit began with meeting the President of Ireland, H.E. Mrs Mary McAleese on 19 May 2004 at Áras an Uachtaráin. Mr Šeks thanked for the continued Irish support of Croatia on its way to the EU. President McAleese compared the process of Irish and Croatian rapprochements to the EU and inquired about the public support in Croatia for EU membership.
After attending the sitting of Dáil Éireann, Mr Šeks met the Ceann Comhairle Dr Rory O´Hanlon, who welcomed Mr Šeks and delegation on its return visit to Ireland. He remembered his very successful visit to Croatia last year during which he learned of many similarities in Irish and Croatian histories. With particular pleasure he remembered the opening of the James Joyce sculpture in Pula. Dr O´Hanlon welcomed the positive steps Croatia made towards the EU during the Irish EU presidency and expressed hope that Croatian will be granted candidacy status in the near future. Mr Šeks thanked his host for the excellent reactions on the visit of the Croatian parliamentary delegation to Ireland. He stressed the importance of the decision by the European Council on the Croatian candidacy status to be made in June.
The President of the Croatian Parliament also met with the Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny TD and Labour´s Ruairi Quinn TD. During his stay in the Leinster House he made a courtesy call on the Cathaoirelach Santor Rory Kiely.
The main cultural event of the visit was the opening of the exhibition Joyce in Pula at Dublin´s Freemasons´ Hall, which was followed by an Istrian dinner hosted by the County Prefect of Istria Mr Ivan Jakovcic.
On 20 May Mr Šeks met with Dr Michael Woods, Chairman of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs and other Committee members. Dr Woods congratulated on the very positive avis by the European Commission which is a sign of the improvement in fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria and the co-operation with the ICTY in Hague. He emphasized Ireland´s intention to work on getting a clear decision from the European Council on the opening of negotiations with Croatia. Mr Šeks has congratulated Ireland on the very successful EU presidency which was marked by the EU enlargement, and would be even greater with the agreement on the EU Constitution. He briefly informed the Committee about Croatia´s foreign policy goals.
During his 3 day visit, Mr Šeks met also with the Minister of State at the Department of Taoiseach and the Department of Foreign Affairs with special responsibility for European Affairs Mr Dick Roche TD. Minister Roche has expressed Irish hopes for a clear decision by the European Council on the starting date of the negotiations with Croatia.
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