The Slovak President pays a working visit to Varaždin, Croatia

On the 30th of September, the President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič, with his wife Silvia, paid a working visit to Croatia. In Varaždin, the Slovak President met his Croatian counterpart Stjepan Mesić.

Their talks focused mainly on the issue of European integration. Ivan Gašparovič said that “at the moment Croatia is prepared to integrate into the EU. Croatia was already ready for accession in January of this year when Bulgaria and Romania joined the EU.”

Slovakia has always supported and will continue to support Croatia’s efforts to become an EU member, he added. The Croatian president thanked Slovakia for the help provided in the process of EU integration and noted that the accession into the Union was his country’s goal and main priority.

Stjepan Mesić said: “It is a great challenge that we have to accept.” Mesić emphasised that Europe had to become united, open its inner borders and allow the people to move freely around the continent. Only a united Europe can be a partner to the USA and other world powers, and to Asian countries in particular. He underlined that Slovakia and Croatia were very close, particularly with regards to their common history, and expressed belief that in the future, as today, they would continue to be on the same wave length.

At the meeting with Ivan Gašparovič, the Croatian president also criticized decisions taken by the Hague Tribunal in connection with the November 1991 massacre in which two hundred people abducted from a hospital in Vukovar had been killed. The Tribunal convicted only two out of three indicted Serbian officers, and even these were given a very mild punishment – twenty, or five years in prison. The Hague’s verdict stirred up fierce reactions and sharp statements by Croatian politicians which they addressed to the Tribunal.
 
The presidential couples attended the 37th Varaždin Baroque Evenings event where the Chamber Orchestra of Bratislava City, Capella Istropolitana, performed.