Minister Pusić: Croatia supports Serbia in European integration processes

On Monday, 29 April, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia met with the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, who is officially visiting the Republic of Croatia

On Monday, 29 April, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Republic of Croatia met with the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, who is officially visiting the Republic of Croatia. They discussed a number of topics, from the issues trailing after the war, via economic issues to the issues related to our cooperation in Europe. „Croatia supports, without reserve, the path of Serbia to European integration and membership of the European Union. We hold it absolutely important that Serbia should be given the date for the beginning of the negotiations on its membership of the EU in June“, said Minister Pusić.

The Minister thanked her Serbian counterpart for the information that made it possible to locate the mortal remains of victims near Sotin, stressing that it was key to settle the issue of the missing persons before tackling the withdrawal of the genocide suit. „Croatia is ready to talk about this subject, but before that, it is necessary to solve some other problems. The issue of the missing persons is one such problem that we cannot let go. In this area serious steps have been made for the first time, and this makes room for talks about the possibility to withdraw the suit“, said the Minister.

Deputy Prime Minister Vučić said that Serbia is ready to continue to cooperate by providing very specific information. „Nobody has interest in hiding information about the missing persons, and I think it is only fair that the families of the missing persons know where the mortal remains of their loved ones are.“

Simultaneously, Serbia requested settling the issue of pensions for Croatian citizens who now live in Serbia. Talks also included the issue of tenancy rights and the process of reconstruction of the homes owned by Croatian citizens in Serbia. Minister Pusić said that the reconstruction of the remaining homes should be funded through IPA project. „Speaking of reconstruction, Croatia has rebuilt 147,000 housing units to date and intends to bring this process to a close“, said the Minister.

In regard of the issues of the Croatian minority in Serbia, Deputy Prime Minister Vučić promised to solve the problem of textbooks and schools that offer teaching in the mother tongue to members of the Croatian national minority in Serbia.

Deputy Prime Minister Vučić said the relation between Serbia and Croatia constituted the backbone of the development of the region at large and thanked for the support that Serbia received from Croatian side in the recently finished negotiations with Kosovo. „To us,  Kosovo is not a state. We see this differently than Croatia, but the Agreement on the Normalization of Relations is by all means very important for the future of the region at large.“

Speaking about the operation „Storm“, Deputy Prime Minister said that the two states did not see the „Storm“ in the same way, adding that this must not be impediment to our future together. „What we differ in, should not be swept under the carpet. The future is much more important than the past. Prospects and development are much more important than digging in the political trenches that cannot bring anything good.“

 

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