As regards the opened accession negotiations, both sides agreed that the screening process is going very well, saying it is expected that during Austria’s EU presidency eight negotiations chapters will be opened, which will significantly speed up the Euro-integration process in Croatia.
The two also reviewed the situation and perspectives in the South East Europe, especially within the context of Austria’s impending role as the EU presiding country, and the EU’s role in the approaching negotiations on the status of Kosovo. The two agreed on the further exchange of opinions on these issues and role of Croatia, especially as regards Croatia’s imminent assuming of the SEECP presidency (South East European Co-operation Process). The two state secretaries also discussed the modalities of further co-operation within the Regional Partnership, a Central European co-operation forum.
State secretaries Biščević and Kyrle also reviewed the bilateral issues and the strengthening of the economic co-operation, and discussed the return of cultural goods and archive material from the Austrian State Archive and Austrian national Library, as well as the City of Vienna’s initiative on the possibility of returning the WW2 cultural goods to the Croatian citizens.