On Monday, 20 September 2010, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration Gordan Jandroković attended the conference of the Hanns Seidel Foundation on „Croatia on the Doorstep to the European Union“.

At the conference of the Hanns Seidel Foundation from Bavaria, attended among others by German and Bavarian MPs, Minister Jandroković gave a presentation

At the conference of the Hanns Seidel Foundation from Bavaria, attended among others by German and Bavarian MPs, Minister Jandroković gave a presentation on „Croatia as a Future EU Member State – Goals, Prospects, Difficulties“.

Having thanked the organizers of the Conference that in its very title indicates the position of Croatia regarding one of its most important foreign-policy goals, Minister Jandroković said that Croatia's membership of the European Union is pending. He thanked for the support that Germany continuously provided to Croatia on its way to this goal. All this is an additional impetus for us to successfully overcome the final stage of our path, said Minister Jandroković.

The beginning of the completion of Croatia's path to EU membership is characterised by the opening of the last three negotiating chapters in June this year, and it remains Croatia's goal to complete the technical part of the negotiations by the end of this year or the beginning of the next. Saying that this goal is realistic and achievable, the Minister said that this is supported by the statistics of 33 opened and 22 provisionally closed chapters, the fact that we have carried out the necessary amendments to the Constitution, as well as the already begun drafting of the Accession Agreement.

Croatia is simultaneously working on fulfilling all its remaining commitments, particularly in the chapters on Market Competition and Justice and Basic Rights. In the coming period the focus will remain on the completion of the justice reform, struggle against corruption, and restructure in shipbuilding, without forgetting the need for further administrative capacity building.

Minister Jandroković also mentioned the political and economic importance that Croatia and the European Union attach to strengthening strategic partnerships with the new growing powers from Asia, Africa and South America. In addition to the consolidation of international economic cooperation, an important component of our foreign policy is also the commitment of Croatia to the countries of Southeast Europe, as a model to follow, in sharing with them its knowledge and experience and encouraging them to persevere on their Euroatlantic path

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