Bulgarian PM Offers Croatia EU Pre-Accession Advice

PM Jadranka Kosor of Croatia (left) is welcomed by Bulgarian PM Borisov in Sofia. Photo by BGNES

Bulgaria’s PM Boyko Borisov welcomed in Sofia Wednesday his Croatian counterpart, Jadranka Kosor.

“I am convinced that there can be peace in the Balkans only after all the countries in the region join NATO and the EU. Otherwise, all the ethnic, religious, historical, and other conflicts will continue to draw lines of division,” Borisov stated after his meeting with the Croatian PM.

Borisov expressed his certainty that Croatia will become the 28th EU member state in 2011. He declared that the Bulgarian government will support the accession of Croatia so that no additional monitoring will have to be imposed on the Adriatic country.

He recommended to Croatian PM Jadranka Kosor that Croatia should carry out its necessary reforms before it joins the European Union because this is a time when the Croatian people are ready for change and have a clear-cut national cause – the EU accession.

Borisov also advised Kosor to set up immediately specialized units in charge of the absorption of EU funding.

Croatian PM Jadranka Kosor has welcomed Borisov’s advice, and explained that her country is already taking steps in the respective directions. Kosor admitted that Croatia has a problem with corruption even though it has registered a great progress in the prosecution of corruption cases over the past year.

She said her government understood the seriousness of the EU funds issue, and had already started to boost its respective administrative capacity.

“We are receiving a very strong support for Croatia’s European future on part of the Bulgarian government. The relations between our two nations are perfect,” Kosor declared.

In the presence of the two Prime Ministers, the InvestBulgaria Agency, and the Croatian Agency for Encouraging Export and Investment signed a cooperation agreement. They discussed the possibility for launching a direct Sofia-Zagreb airline. The number of Bulgarian tourists in Croatia registered a 15% growth in 2009 year-on-year.

“The Croatian Prime Minister and the Croatian people should know that they have a very strong ally in the face of Bulgaria,” PM Borisov said.

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