Minister Pusić and Ambassador Vandoren open Europe Week

First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić and chief of the EU Delegation to Croatia Paul Vandoren 6 May presented the activities of this year’s Europe Week

First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusić and chief of the EU Delegation to Croatia Paul Vandoren 6 May presented the activities of this year’s Europe Week, which is for the 14^th year in a row being organized to commemorate the Europe Day.

“It is a fact that Croatia, after reforming and establishing new institutions, has used the EU accession process to build and stabilize itself. From 1 July on we will be in the EU, not as a country adapting to the standards defined by others, but as a country actively participating in forming the standards Europe lives by,” Pusić said.

As for the events during Europe Week, Pusić said that there would be EU lectures and speeches throughout Croatia. “In Brod-Posavina County there will be workshops on the European sign language, Karlovac County will host lectures on the Schengen regulations, in Vukovar-Syrmia County children will draw their own take on the EU, and in Varaždin County each kindergarten is presenting one of the EU members,” she said.

Vandoren said this year’s Europe Day had a special significance as there was only 56 days left to Croatia’s EU entry. “The Delegation’s main task was to follow the government during the negotiations, help it strengthen administrative capacities and offer information about the EU to the citizens. It was an exciting process full of challenges, but it is about to end,” he said.

Pusić and Vandoren also opened the "I, the citizen of the EU" multimedia exhibition at the Cvjetni Square.

Before opening Europe Week, Pusić opened the 2013 EU Days at the Zagreb Faculty of Economy, a project presenting the students the possibilities that the EU membership offers. “Study hard, graduate quick and come work, because we need people who will know how to formulate our projects, politics and positions towards European institutions,” the minister said.

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