Taking part at the meeting from the Croatian side were State Secretary at the Central State Office for Administration Antun Palarić, State Secretary at the Ministry of Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development Damir Špančić, State Secretary Snježana Bagić and Assistant Minister Jakša Muljačić from the Ministry of Justice. Apart from the Director General Leigh, taking part at the meeting were EC negotiator Allan Jones, Head of the EC Delegation to Croatia Vincent Degert and the Head of the Department for Political, Economic and Trade Issues, Press and Information at the EC Delegation to Croatia, Christos Makridis.
State Secretary Biščević informed Director General Leigh about Croatia’s activities in meeting the political criteria for a full EU membership. The Croatian side reported to the EC representatives on the progress in the public administration and justice reform, anticorruption policy, processing of war criminals before the Croatian courts, national minority rights, refugee return, and media issues.
It was jointly concluded that Croatia is achieving a constant progress in meeting the political criteria for EU membership and is contributing significantly to the strengthening of regional co-operation in accordance with the EU policies. The meeting also discussed in detail the outstanding issues with the neighbours and the regional co-operation, pointing out the importance of raising the public’s awareness about the Euro-integration processes. In that regard, Director General Leigh announced the opening of a new position of the deputy director for enlargement in charge of communication at the Enlargement Directorate.
The EC representatives welcomed the activities Croatia is undertaking in solving the open issues with the neighbours, confirming that they do not represent an obstacle in its EU accession, but that it should still continue with the bilateral efforts in finding definite solutions.
During his visit, Director General Leigh was also received by Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.