First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Vesna Pusić met with Council of Europe Secretary-General Thorbjørn Jagland, who was on an official visit to the Republic of Croatia.
Pusić outlined Croatia's EU accession, during which one of the first steps was Croatia's admission to the Council of Europe in 1996, underlining the importance of the support which the Council of Europe offers to EU membership aspirants.
Jagland informed Pusić about Council of Europe's priorities such as the fight against corruption, intolerance and hate speech as well as ensuring the protection of human rights and media freedoms. He also spoke about CoE activities in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, thanking Croatia for its active participation in CoE.
Pusić said Croatia strongly supported the continuation of European processes in the countries in the region, adding that the “accession of SEE countries is not so much enlargement as it is a consolidation of the EU”. She pledged Croatia's assistance to its neighbours, as our prosperity and stability depend on the progress of neighbours as well, which is why we see our EU entry as “accession with a mission”.
The Croatia minister also outlined the activities of the Centre of Excellence, which gathers experts from the negotiating process and whose goal is to transfer Croatia’s experience to countries in the region and others, such as the Southern Mediterranean countries. She said the protection of human and civil rights were high on the government’s priority list and that headway had been made in the respect for the rights of LGBT persons as well (last year’s Split Pride and 10 years of Zagreb Pride).
Secretary-General Jagland said CoE was a heterogeneous organization of 47 member states, some of which have problems with respecting human rights. He added that lengthy court processes and inefficient judiciary in some of the countries (70% of complaints comes from six member states) were the reasons why the European Court of Human Rights was overloaded. He said it was important to focus CoE on a smaller number of most crucial issues, the improvement of monitoring mechanisms and a better follow-up on their findings as well as setting up a platform for a better dialogue with the member states. He also spoke about CoE plans for the Southern Mediterranean countries, which currently are neither members nor observers, but which would be important to set up some sort of formal cooperation with so as to stimulate and monitor reforms and democratic processes in those countries.