The State Secretary for European Integration, Andrej Plenkovic, on Tuesday opened at the Zagreb Faculty of Economics an event called "EU Days - Let's Ask Europe", organised by the Croatian Students' Association on the occasion of Europe Week, the Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Ministry said in a statement.
Europe Week is a part of intensive activities aimed at providing Croatian citizens with information on opportunities offered by Croatia's EU membership as well as its challenges in the context of the coming EU accession referendum.
The conference "EU Days - Let's Ask Europe", which lasts until May 5, will include round table debates and lectures and it will provide students of the Faculty of Economics with information on possibilities of studying or acquiring work experience abroad so as to increase employment opportunities for young people through greater mobility of labour made possible by the internal EU market.
Speaking of Croatia's EU entry talks, Plenkovic said the government was committed to completing that process by closing the remaining negotiating areas by the end of June.
He also underlined the importance of providing citizens with correct and complete information on all aspects of EU membership in the context of the coming referendum.
He also spoke about Erasmus, one of the most successful EU programmes. Starting from the academic year 2009/2010, Croatian institutions of higher education were for the first time given the possibility to participate in Erasmus, and 284 people, mostly students, took part in academic exchanges. In the second year of implementation of the programme, the mobility of Croatian students increased to some 600 students, and in the academic year 2011/2012 around 1,000 persons are expected to take part in the EU programme, with funding for that purpose amounting to more than two million euros.
