Pusić: Regional cooperation important to Croatia and EU

(Hina) - Cooperation among countries in Southeast Europe is a subject intensively discussed within the European Union, which is "important and good" for Croatia because stability of the region and economic cooperation are in its own interest

(Hina) - Cooperation among countries in Southeast Europe is a subject intensively discussed within the European Union, which is "important and good" for Croatia because stability of the region and economic cooperation are in its own interest, the Croatian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, Vesna Pusić, said in Bled, Slovenia on Tuesday.

"This region is important to us," Pusić said, adding that Croatia and Slovenia were not excluded from the region by virtue of being EU members. She noted that the two countries have a certain responsibility towards the region because it is a crisis area and their interest is stability.

"There is a tendency for countries from the region to be excluded from it after they enter the EU, but I am confident that it is not so," Pusić said. "Our task is to change the picture of the region little by little," Pusić told the press during the Bled Strategic Forum, which had drawn more than 500 participants from 65 countries. She took part in the panel "The Future of the Western Balkans – How to Make Regional Cooperation Work".

Pusić recalled that regional cooperation had been the subject of several international and regional conferences recently, mentioning a recent meeting of regional presidents in Dubrovnik, the Croatia Forum before that, and a recent conference in Berlin organised by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Before the panel, Pusić met with Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec with whom she discussed bilateral relations, the situation in the region and the crisis in Ukraine. She said that relations between Croatia and Slovenia were good.

Speaking of the problem of Yugoslav-era foreign currency savings of Croatian clients with Slovenia's Ljubljanska Banka, Pusić said that a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights, which upheld claims by depositors, did not change the position of Croatia that an alternative solution to the issue could be found within the Mokrice Memorandum. However, until the issue is solved alternatively, lawsuits against Ljubljanska Banka will continue before Croatian courts, she added.

The panel was also attended by Serbia's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dačić, the Undersecretary of State at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Benedetto Della Vedova, the Foreign Policy Adviser to the President of Slovenia, Marko Makovec, Montenegro's Undersecretary of State for European Integration, Aleksandar Andrija Pejović, and Macedonian Foreign Minister Nikola Poposki.

Press releases