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Croatia: We want to enter EU on our own |
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In Turkey on an official visit, Croatian President Stejpan Mesic
revealed his country's EU accession strategy, but underlined that
Croatia wished to enter the accession process on its own. Speaking at a
meeting in Ankara, Mesic attested that Croatia also wished for Turkey
to enter the EU, but noted "if we enter like a convoy, we will go at
the slowest possible speed."
Recounting the stages in his country's approach to possible EU
membership, Mesic said "Until the year 2000, we thought of ourselves as
being among the enemies. After 2000, we left off this way of thinking,
and focused soley on the EU laws. We tried to bring EU standards to the
daily lives of our citizens. We developed cooperative efforts with
unfriendly neighbors. We allowed those who had left the country to
return. There were those who did not support this process, but we are
making our way to the process, because politicians have never stopped
believing in the goal, and developing plans to support it. |