While in Zagreb on Monday, President Klaus Iohannis said that Romania and Croatia would benefit at all levels if the countries in the western Balkans joined European Union.
“Bilateral relation has been constantly developed in the past years, especially after the two countries joined EU. There are links between Romania and Croatia that we must capitalize for our countries and our citizens. We are linked by the EU, NATO membership, by the Danube region and our interest for enhancing the European perspective of the countries in the western Balkans (…) I think both Romania and Croatia would only benefit on several levels ranging from economic development and regional stability following the West Balkans’ joining EU,” Iohannis said after meeting his Croatian counterpart, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic.
Romanian and Croatian presidents also tackled economic, educational cooperation, as well as cooperation solutions on minorities.
Klaus Iohannis said that Romania is going through a “hot stage” regarding anti-corruption fight, while expressing hope the result will positively influence the Schengen issue. “We talked about Schengen and it’s quite obvious that corruption issue is considered when we talk about Schengen Area. Romania did remarkable progress and the case of PM Ponta is a sad one, it only reveals that the anti-corruption fight is going ahead full steam. We are experiencing a hot stage and we’ll definitely stand the test,” Iohannis said when asked if some high-level corruption cases like the premier’s one is affecting Romania’s process of joining Schengen.
In her turn, Croatia’s President lady said that anti-corruption fight is only accelerating the process of joining Schengen.
“My attitude has been always zero tolerance to corruption. On short term the anti-corruption fight may affect a person’s image, but this doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be impeached, including high ranking officials (…) I don’t think the fight against corruption will negatively affect the Schengen process. We are only at the beginning regarding this project (…)” Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic pointed out.
She further said her country would like to reach the level of the political relations also when it comes to trade, mentioning Croatia is interested in projects related to transportation, rehabilitation of hydroelectric power plants, IT and modern technologies.
“Regarding the Danube region we consider that Croatia did not use all existent potential to dispose of the Danube corridor all its way through,” the Croatian president argued, also adding she wishes for the reinforcement of trilateral collaboration between Romania, Croatia and Hungary.