Since this was the first visit of Icelandic Minister of Foreign Affairs to Croatia since it has marked gaining independence, collocutors expressed confidence that this meeting will give an additional incentive for strengthening bilateral cooperation within the new environment, in which both Croatia and Iceland are candidates for EU membership. Relations between the two countries were assessed as very good. Minister Jandroković added that Iceland plays an important role in Croatian history, since it was the first country to recognize valid and unconditional independence of the Republic of Croatia.

Minister Jandroković expressed Croatian support to Iceland’s joining the European Union. He also expressed readiness to share Croatian experience form the negotiation process, emphasizing his belief that both Croatia and Iceland will soon become EU member states. In the context of Croatian accession negotiations, the current course of the negotiation process has been presented, and an accent was put on the progress achieved at the last Intergovernmental conference on the accession of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union, namely opening the final three chapters. 20 chapters have temporarily been closed.

Minister Jandroković assessed that the negotiation process is in its final phase, and that Croatia is dedicated to finalising the process by the end of this year or beginning of next year. Our priority in the forthcoming period, said Minister Jandroković, is preparing the draft of the Accession Treaty, the signing of which is expected during Hungarian presidency of the European Union.

On today’s occasion, ministers Jandroković and Skarphéðinsson signed the Agreement between the Republic of Croatia and Iceland for the avoidance of double taxation and the prevention of fiscal evasion with respect to taxes on income, which will strengthen economic relations between the two countries. Croatia and Iceland are already cooperating on business projects related to using renewable energy sources, a field in which Iceland is among the leading countries in the world. Another field of cooperation is tuna breeding, in which Croatia is among the most successful in the Mediterranean area. Collocutors welcomed the cooperation between the two countries in the energy sector, which sets a good example of partnership and long–term interest with the aim of passing knowledge and experience in using renewable energy sources. Business cooperation is also planned in the field of geothermal energy use, a contribution to which was given today by signing the Memorandum of Understanding between the Icelandic consulting company EFLA and Energy Institute Hrvoje Požar. Ministers also discussed other fields in which a possibility of economic cooperation might be possible, like environmental protection, information technology, biotechnology and food production and processing.

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