Minister Gordan Jandroković visited Brussels, held series of meetings with EU officials

In the meeting with Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, Minister Jandroković pointed out that Croatia is willing to go the distance in order to meet the membership criteria and become a full EU member by 2010. He informed Commissioner Rehn about the efforts in reforming the justice, fighting corruption, professionalising state administration, and protecting national minorities, as well as in the refugee return process and the return of their property.

Talking about the positive role Croatia plays in the stabilisation of the region and the European perspective of its countries, Minister Jandroković emphasized that Croatia is willing to continue assisting them through its experience and advice on their path of approaching the Euro-Atlantic integration.

The collocutors expressed satisfaction with the fact that the European Council’s Enlargement Working Group has officially confirmed that Croatia has satisfied five criteria, which enables the opening of the further chapters, and that the negotiation dynamic is unfolding as planned.

In the meeting with European Parliament’s Rapporteur for Croatia Hannes Swoboda, Minister Jandroković reiterated Croatia’s readiness to fulfil all the EU membership criteria. The meeting also discussed the necessity of speeding up the accession negotiations and their completion by fall 2009, which had also been confirmed by the European Commission’s President José Manuel Barroso.

Minister Jandroković also met with Head of the European Parliament’s Delegation to the Joint Parliamentary Committee Pál Schmitt, Chairman of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Jacek Emil Saryusz-Wolski, and Chairman of the EPP-ED Group at the European Parliament Joseph Daul.

He also held an occasional speech before the European MPs at the conference entitled “EU Enlargement and Consolidation”, organised by the Hanns-Seidel Foundation and the European Studies Center.