Croatia to reconcile views on EU expansion

NEWS 05.07.201918:57
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When it takes the chair of the European Union Council, Croatia will try to reconcile the frustration felt by the countries of southeastern Europe over their slow integration into the Union and the reservations that some EU member states have for expansion, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at the Berlin Process – Western Balkans summit.

“The countries of southeastern Europe have great ambitions but they all share a frustration over the slowness of the process. At the same time, some EU member states, not including Croatia, have fairly great reservations and want the process to be much more gradual,” Plenkovic said.

He said that Croatia has a political and leadership role in trying to reconcile the two and see what “we can expect for our neighbors in the next decade”.

Planekovic said that the summit of EU and southeast European countries which Croatia is planning to organize in May 2020 will provide opportunity to realistically see what can be done to speed up the process over the next 10 years.