The European Union is not heading toward federalisation but intends to prepare tighter cooperation and will remain a community of independent and sovereign states, Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said in Brussels on Thursday ahead of an EU summit that will discuss a new architecture of the eurozone in an effort to deal with the crisis.
Speaking about the conclusions on enlargement which are to be confirmed at the summit and which remind Croatia to respect international agreements including the issue of succession, journalists asked Milanovic if there was a danger that Slovenia would not ratify Croatia's accession treaty, to which he replied that Croatia was keeping up its international obligations.
"All I can say is that Croatia is being fair and transparent and we expect others to behave that way too. We have been patient and will continue to be so to the end", he said.
Milanovic said Croatia advocated that negotiations on Serbia's accession start soon. We believe it is in Croatia's interest, we are neighbours, we need to work, trade, earn and communicate normally, said the premier.
He would not comment on recent criticisms by Serbia's PM Ivica Dacic that the Croatian government was avoiding to meet with him.
EU heads of state started the two-day summit on Thursday afternoon and the focus of the meeting is stronger ties within the eurozone, primarily by establishing a banking union. The summit started off with a positive atmosphere after finance ministers had come to an agreement over a unified supervision of banks in the eurozone which is the first step to setting up the banking union.
