Speech on the occasion of marking the Croatian Diplomacy Day

Mr. President,
(Mr. Prime Minister),
(Highly esteemed Minister Mock),
Your Excellency Papal Nuntius,
Your Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure to me to welcome you and thank you for following the invitation to celebrate the Days of Croatian Diplomacy.
You are most welcome to the opening of the exhibition which on this occasion we have prepared for you and all the interested citizens on the subject of Croatian diplomacy and Croatia’s way to the Euro-Atlantic integration processes”).

This exhibition is a contribution to the monumental character of the room in which we are standing. This building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in the renovation and preservation of which we have invested a great deal of money, celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, which is worth taking notice.

Today, this beautiful hundred years old building, as the centre of diplomatic events in Croatia, is home to the diplomatic and consular missions of the Republic of Croatia in 59 countries, as well as seven Permanent Missions with international organisations. In the Republic of Croatia there are currently 90 accredited ambassadors, of whom 45 in resident embassies, and 50 consular offices in Croatian cities. As a country with established diplomatic relations with more than 140 countries of the world, Croatia has managed to put itself on the diplomatic map of the world.

This year’s celebration of the Day of Diplomacy in Croatia has a great - I would even say unique - importance in many ways.

The seventh of June has been chosen for the Days of Croatian Diplomacy because it was on that precise date that back in 879 Pope John the Eighth sent a letter to the Croatian Prince Branimir, in which the Pope recognised, among other things, Branimir’s “rule over whole Croatia”. This historical event was the first recognition of Croatian statehood by the then highest Church and secular authority. Although twelve centuries have passed since then, last Saturday, on the same day, we have had the special honour to welcome Pope John Paul the Second whose ancient predecessor John the Eighth, in his letter, confirmed the independence of the Croatian state in terms of international law.

I would like to use this opportunity to publicly declare that the Holy Father, during his hundredth apostolic journey (to Croatia, as it happens) blessed the transcript of the letter of John the Eighth to Prince Branimir which I submitted to him on 7 June 2003 during his visit to Osijek. By doing so the Holy Father once again confirmed the adherence of the Holy See to the statehood of Croatia and its future within the European Union.
The messages addressed to us these days by John Paul the Second - about peace, building a society of tolerance and full democracy on Croatia’s way to full membership of the European family of nations and states - we have received, as a great sign of recognition, and fully aware of our responsibility, an encouragement for the fulfilment of further obligations we shall be facing on our way.

This year’s celebration of the Day of Croatian Diplomacy is special because the year 2003 is really a European year for Croatia.

After the parliamentary consensus in December 2002 concerning the Resolution on Croatia’s Joining the European Union, on 13 February 2003 our Government decided to submit its application for membership, signed by the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister on 20 February. The next day, on 21 February 2002, Croatia’s application was submitted to the Chairman of the European Council in Athens.

It was an extremely important step to resume the process of negotiations on the admission of Croatia to the European Union and, consequently, to speed up the implementation of further reforms which are necessary for the general harmonisation with the European standards.

Croatia’s application for membership of the European Union is the first application submitted in the 21st century. The framework toward which we are moving today is the European Union with its single currency and 25 Member States.

It is important to note that the Republic of Croatia, in addition to the support from its European partners and its friends world-wide, has some particular reasons to submit the application:
- May I remind you that behind the strategic goal of Croatia’s joining the EU stands the will of three fourths of its citizens;
- In the reforms implemented to date we have achieved important progress in meeting the Copenhagen criteria, with regard to both the key political conditions and the economic progress
- In the first year since the signature of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, we have implemented nearly 60 percent of the measures envisaged, and by the end of the year we shall have implemented more than 80 percent of the SAA implementation plan.
- Today, Croatia is objectively the most advanced in terms of the economy and institutions of all the countries included in the Stabilisation and Association Process, with positive economic trends and permanent growth of the GDP which put it on the same level with the candidates currently joining the EU.

Submitting the application for EU membership is, of course, a result of great effort and activities undertaken by this Government in building the Croatian society on the values of the most advanced European democracies. This clear commitment to join the Euro-Atlantic integration processes, which is characteristic of the Croatian government policy in the last three and a half years, met with the open support from the international community from the very beginning.

In the meantime, the Republic of Croatia has greatly consolidated its international position as a country with authentic foreign policy in approaching the Euro-Atlantic integration processes and ready to undergo the process in order to take its position among responsible democracies of the world.

As opposed to yesterday, the Republic of Croatia can now more efficiently develop partnership with others because we have left behind us the traumatic period of struggle for national independence, and we have also reached the consensus on joining the Euro-Atlantic integration.

In the three years, the support of the international community to the general political changes in Croatia was reflected in a number of important achievements preceding Croatia’s application for EU-membership. Here are some of them:

- The Admission of Croatia to Partnership for Peace and the World Trade Organisation;
- The Zagreb Summit of the EU postulating the individual approach of the SAP countries to the Union with simultaneous consolidation of regional cooperation;
- The end of monitoring mission of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in Croatia;
- The ommission of Croatia from the omnibus resolution on human rights of the UN General Assembly;
- The active contribution of Croatia to the establishment of Quadrilateral and the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative and, generally, to the development of regional cooperation in Central and Southeastern Europe;
- The admission of Croatia to the Membership Action Plan guaranteeing its integration with NATO, and finally, signing the Adriatic Charter to reinforce and speed up the process;
- At the end of the last year, we became full members of CEFTA and with great optimism closed the UN Mission to Prevlaka to bring the whole state territory fully under the sovereign control of the Government of Croatia.

Ladies and gentlemen,
Croatia is fully aware that the submission of the application for EU membership three months ago does not preclude any of its international commitments or responsibilities within the region. As a small but responsible country with European aspirations we can contribute to building peace, security and political and economic stability primarily through regional cooperation, particularly with our neighbours.

To our own satisfaction, and to the satisfaction of the international community we have managed to establish the relations of confidence and full cooperation with all our neighbours, settling the remaining open issues through dialogue, with full respect and understanding for each other.

Today, Croatia develops its relations to its neighbours under the contemporary circumstances of globalisation, when neighbourhood is changing its traditional meaning. The new concept of neighborhood exceeds the mere geographic contact at the borders.

In spite of the difficult heritage from the recent past and the consequent daily challenges, we have invested maximum efforts in Croatia in the last three years to make this region attractive to economic investments, by building constructive neighbourly relations. In this we have been aware, of course, that without peace and security there can be no economic progress for Croatia or the region as a whole.

Likewise, without peace and security this region cannot fulfil its European aspirations. The stability of Southeastern Europe directly affects the stability of the new, enlarged European Union, and the process of its enlargement itself.

In about ten days there will be a Summit of the European Union and the SAP countries in Salonika. Croatia sincerely hopes, as a country expecting the candidate status, to receive a new strong impulse in approaching the full membership, and that all other countries of the region will raise the quality of their relations with the European Union to a higher level and substantially improve their European prospects.

The confirmation of Croatia’s candidacy will be a clear message to the other SAP countries that they should relate the success of their strategies in approaching the EU to the success of the reform they implement.

Croatia, fortunately, is no longer a major issue in Europe like ten years ago, and Europe is, fortunately again, increasingly becoming topical in Croatia!

We are fully aware of the fact that the image of Croatia depends on the politics in Croatia. We also know that with its candidacy Croatia will not “export problems” but will “add value” to the European Union. We have experienced that bordering on the European Union physically brings benefits, but it also brings obligations.

The open door to the enlarged Europe awaiting new Member States on the merit of their respective individual performance is still a historical challenge and strategic foreign policy goal for Croatia.
Finally, dear friends, I recall the visionary words of the famous Victor Hugo spoken at the Peace Congress in Paris in 1849:

“There will be a day when all nations of the Continent, without losing their particular and glorious individual character, will merge to a superior European unity... A day will come when there will be no other battlefields then markets opening to trade and spirits opening to ideas...”

150 years after Victor Hugo, nothing of essence can be added to this vision of a united Europe. Only that this great, united Europe cannot be achieved without Croatia, among other things. Croatia itself will not and can not imagine its future without participating in the historic process of the European integration.

On behalf of the diplomatic community of Croatia I would like to greet and thank our dear guest, Mr. Alois Mock, a true supporter of the national independence of the Republic of Croatia in the times crucial to its creation, and of Croatia’s interests on its current way to the European Union.

At the same time, on behalf of all of us, Mr. Mock, I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart for your birthday today, on the Day of Croatian Diplomacy.

I wish you all success in your work and thank you for your attention.