Croatian Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic, who on Friday attended an international conference on the 10th anniversary of the EU-Western Balkans Summit held in Thessaloniki, said that countries in the region used to look at the European Union as a flight from the Balkans, but today they perceived EU membership as a possibility for each western Balkan country to take over responsibility for their own stability and future.
Addressing the conference "10 Years after Thessaloniki", which was held in Dublin as the Irish Presidency coincides with the 10 year anniversary of the EU-Western Balkans Summit held in that Greek city, the Croatian foreign minister called on the Union to set a date to open the accession negotiations with Serbia and Macedonia and to start negotiations with Kosovo on a Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA).
The process of negotiations is not important only for being granted full membership but also to build state institutions and for reforms, Pusic said, according to a statement issued by the Croatian foreign ministry today.
The purpose of the Dublin conference was to reflect on progress made over the last 10 years, the difficulties encountered and the outlook to complete that project.
The further enlargement is reunion of Europe which started with the fall of the Berlin Wall, Irish Minister of State for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton, was quoted as saying.
Irish Foreign Minister Eamon Gilmore pushed for evaluating each country according to its own achievements.
