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EU Not to Go to Balkan Summit Empty-Handed: Prodi
The European Union on Monday promised not to go to its planned summit with the western Balkan nations empty-handed.
Romano Prodi, president of the European Commission, the executive body of the 15-nation bloc, told visiting Croatian President Stipe Mesic that the EU member states would open their markets one-sided toward Croatia prior to the summit that is slated for November.
Trade and stabilization will be promoted as the concrete preparation for the summit that pools the 15 EU nations with Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, the Yugoslav republic of Montenegro and the Yugoslav province of Kosovo.
Consideration is being made of inviting Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and the Czech Republic to the summit to be held at the Croatian tourist resort of Dubrovnik.
Prodi described his discussion with Mesic as frank and the relations between the EU and Croatia as in the beginning of a good political and economic season.
The Croatian president told the press that he had talked with Prodi about the preparation for the summit. He said that all countries in the neighborhood would be welcome to participate in the EU-western Balkans summit so as to further ensure security and stability of the region.
Mesic also visited the NATO headquarters earlier in the day. Croatia, one of the former Yugoslav republics, has been hailed by the west as an example of democratization. NATO has accepted Croatia in May into its Partnership for Peace program that now includes most of the former Soviet republics and Yugoslav republics.
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