Minister Žužul held is taking part, 11 January 2005, at the 10th international financial “Central and Eastern European Forum” in Vienna, organised by London-based magazine Euromoney. The meeting of 1000 state officials and financial and economic experts from Central and Eastern Europe was opened under the working title “The Next Millennium” by Austria’s president Heinz Fischer
In his presentation, Minister Žužul said that the last year was extremely successful for Croatia, especially as regards its approaching the EU. As a result of fulfilling the Copenhagen criteria and meeting all other preconditions, Croatia received a positive Opinion (Avis) from the European Commission, the EU candidate status, and a date for the start of the membership negotiations – 17 March 2005. Minister Žužul also spoke about the positive effect this has on the overall financial and economic situation in Croatia, which also reflects on the stability of macroeconomic relations.
The international community recognised and accepted these facts. A concrete proof of Croatia’s progress is the recent improvement of Croatia’s credit rating, published December last year by the renowned financial agency Standard & Poor’s. This is the first time in 7 years that Croatia’s rating has improved, said Minister Žužul in his speech at the financial Forum in Vienna.
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