Click on the link below to read Croatian Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic´s interview in Transatlantic Magazine
Editor-in-Chief Robert Guttman recently met with Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in Washington, D.C., to discuss EU enlargement, NATO membership, and relations neighboring countries in the Balkans.
Transatlantic Magazine: In this issue, we are discussing women and politics. How did you get into politics?
Croatian Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic: I used to be a professional diplomat and in 2003 when I came back from my Fulbright scholarship from the United States, i was on maternity leave and I got a call from the current prime minister of Croatia to join the campaign of the Croatian Democratic Union, which i gladly did. Quite unexpectedly i actually ran for the parliamentary elections and was elected to parliament. I was appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. One of the aspects of my work is also to promote the role of women in politics. We have about 24% of women in Croatian politics, which is quite a good increase in comparison to the first elections in 1990 when we had only 5% in the parliament. Out of 14 members of the cabinet, four are women, including a deputy prime minister, minister of justice, myself, and minister of environmental protection. We, of course, need to promote the role of women in politics and in business in Croatia. We're on the right track. Some of the most popular politicians are women. It's accepted as something that is not just a role for men. We need to do a lot more to educate, not only women but young politicians who will be emerging as a new generation of politicians. With respect to participation of women in politics and in business in Croatia we still have to do some additive changes. We have excellent legislation but still some changing of attitudes and promoting ambition among young women is what's necessary. Women are not discriminated against based on salary. Equality of sexes is guaranteed by law, by the Constitution. As i said all the legal instruments are in place but in the practical sense we would like to do more. And we're looking at the Scandinavian countries who have about 50%participation of women in politics.
Are you worried that the EU may be suffering from enlargement from enlargement fatigue and may not look forward to having new members in near future or do you feel Croatia is on track towards EU membership in the next three years?
We realize that Europe is looking inward in the sense of consolidation of the European Union, but we believe the process of enlargement can proceed in the same time, simultaneously. So we're determined to fulfill the obligations, all the criteria for membership as soon as possible and we believe that we can finish negotiations within about two and a half to three years based on the experience of the countries that have joined so far. However, as far as the date of our accession is concerned, it's something for the EU to decide and we will not be obsessing with the date. We need to have a time frame in mind in order to be able to set the priorities, set the goals and to be able to fulfill the obligations. But we will not be competing with any other countries in that process, not with Romania or Bulgaria or with Turkey as another candidate who has begun negotiations, who began as a matter in fact on the same day as Croatia did, on the third of October last year, nor with any other country in our own region. We will be doing the utmost to making our best effort in order to be ready as soon as possible and having in mind the quality of the process, the few years that are ahead of us, are equally important as the accession itself, that we have to be ready for membership in order to be able to use best the opportunities of EU membership. We know that the reform processes that we're carrying out in that sense are something that we have to do even if it were not for membership in the EU or in NATO. Consolidating democratic institutions. Judiciary reforms, fighting corruption, building administrative capacities, increasing the competitiveness of the Croatian economy, is clearly to the benefit of the Croatian citizens in the first place.
What will Croatia add to the EU and conversely what are you going to get from the EU?
Croatia certainly will not be a country that will bring any problems into the EU. We believe Croatia can add to the strength of the EU, the development, the economic growth of the EU, that we can add to the culture, the historical heritage and certainly the natural beauty of the 1,200 islands and the beautiful landscapes of Croatia and the people who cherish all of these values that we share with other European nations, and that are hard working and looking toward future opportunities within the European Union. In addition, one of the significant contributions that Croatia can make to the European, is the stabilization of the neighborhood of southeastern Europe. We are a country that has been able to resolve its own problems with the assistance with our friends and allies within the international community, but within a decade and a half has emerged from an aggression against its people and territory, have accepted all the refugees and displaced persons, whoever wants to return, have already returned, or will return to Croatia. We have restituted all the properties to the refugees. The process is almost complete and it is our ambition to complete that by the end of 2006. We have allocated the funds from the state budget to do that. In that respect we can also assist the processes in our neighboring countries, support the constitution building of Bosnia-Herzegovina as a sovereign state, a functioning politically emancipated state, the three constituent people, Croats, Serbs, and Muslims who are equal on the whole territory of Bosnia-Herzegovina. To support the process in Serbian Montenegro, for us any solution that is arrived at through peaceful negotiations and mutual respect between Belgrade and Priština will be acceptable. As to the final status of Kosovo, our underlying interest is to keep peace and stability in the region so we will be working together with the international community. We support the work of the contact group and we will be aligning ourselves with the EU and the United States' policies. And we'll be a constructive partner to the international community in helping Belgrade and Priština to reach a solution and the same goals also for Montenegro and whatever decision they take with respect to the referendum and the results of the future referendum that has been planned in Montenegro.
Being part of the EU, what will that do for Croatia? What will the benefits of membership be for Croatia?
No situation in life is perfect but the benefits of EU membership for Croatia will be far greater than the potential disadvantages of membership. And of course the huge market, being part of the huge market that is certainly a lot bigger that the Croatian market will be one of the foremost benefits in the economic sense and whatever we're doing to increase the competitiveness of the Croatian industry. Stability, the political stability which brings increased credit ratings, foreign direct investment, a greater number of tourists, and tourism is still the most important branch of the Croatian economy. There will be numerous benefits for education, healthcare in the European Union. The free movement of services, capital, but also people to be able to travel and live in a certain country, perhaps for a few years and come back to Croatia. A Europe without borders will bring about greater stability but also economic prosperity and social security as well. Today we trend to forget what Europe used to look like when there was an Iron Curtain and there were borders and borders crossing between states and how difficult it was at the time, how much longer it took to travel, to do business, to communicate. These are all opportunities for the Croatian citizens to participate for instance in the public procurement in other countries, for construction companies to do business in other countries. Certainly it will also bring the standards of living up and hopefully the prices down as well with increased competition.
Talking about membership, the other thing you are looking forward to joining is NATO, where do you stand now?
We hope that based on the results of the reforms, of course, that Croatia will be invited to NATO membership as soon as possible. We believe it's a merit-based process and in addition to EU membership for us NATO membership should also be based on individual achievement. We just had a series of meeting on Monday together with our Albanian and Macedonian friends who are members of the U.S. Adriatic Charter. It is a very good initiative for us because it helps us to exchange experience and talk about our common problems and how to solve them on the way to NATO. A lot of the reforms within the context of the EU membership are complementary with the NATO criteria in the political and economic fields and the additional would be defense reforms, the budget for the defense restructuring, deployability of the Croatian armed forces, etc. But this is something we have been in the process of doing, in any case, because of course our army emerged fro a wartime army about ten years ago to a peacetime army. The number of soldiers has been greatly reduced and of course the weapons systems have to be modernized and the deployment of forces to achieve the compability with NATO forces in all aspects of deployment and armament.
When do you hope to join NATO?
As soon as possible. The 2006 summit in Latvia will not be an enlargement summit but we hope to get a clear message of What Croatia has achieved so far and an encouragement to the Croatian government to continue the reforms as the door remains open to NATO membership as soon as Croatia is ready. We will do our best on our part to fulfill the criteria and, of course, it's for NATO allies to make that decision.
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