Minister Pusić receives Bundesrat commissioner for EU enlargement, Saxony state minister for justice and European affairs

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić held talks with the Bundesrat Commissioner for EU Enlargement and Berlin Deputy Mayor Frank Henkel (CDU) and Saxony State Minister for Justice and European Affairs Jürgen Martens (FDP)

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić held talks with the Bundesrat Commissioner for EU Enlargement and Berlin Deputy Mayor Frank Henkel (CDU) and Saxony State Minister for Justice and European Affairs Jürgen Martens (FDP).

Pusić said Croatia had met all the requirements listed in the European Commission's autumn report, including the hardest one – shipbuilding, adding that Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Füle at a government session next week would present the final report, hopeful that it would be positive. She also reported on the rest of the ratification processes and the start of the ratification process in Slovenia.

Martens congratulated Croatia and Slovenia on the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding and solving the Ljubljanska Banka issue. The German officials were also interested in Croatia's relations with the region. Pusić said that this enlargement round and Croatia's upcoming EU accession was an "enlargement with a task", the stabilisation of the region.

Henkel and Martens said the announcement of imposing post-accession monitoring for Croatia that appeared in the media the previous week was "an isolated and individual opinion and not the position of the German government". Pusić stressed it was important to stay focused on the goal, adding that Croatia, because of the European Union's experience in previous enlargement rounds, had stricter criteria and benchmarks for the opening and closing of the negotiation chapters, as well as a separate chapter on judiciary.

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