Croatia's Foreign and European Affairs Minister Vesna Pusic reiterated in her interview with the NOVA TV commercial television on Sunday evening that out of the 10 tasks identified in the European Commission's last report on Croatia, the country should complete seven tasks by the end of this year, and expressed her conviction that it was beyond doubt that Croatia would enter the European Union on 1 July 2013.
Asked about possibilities of Slovenia not ratifying the Croatia-EU accession treaty in time for Croatia to join the EU, as scheduled, in the event of the fall of the incumbent Slovenian government, the Croatian minister said she had checked with her Slovenian colleagues "and they say that they can settle the issue of the ratification within a month and a half, provided that everything else is solved and they are focused on that".
Asked by the television's reporter about the relationship in the ruling majority and between the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and her Croatian People's Party (HNS), a junior partner in the governing coalition, Pusic said she felt comfortable in the cabinet and that SDP Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic discussed all strategic matters with her regarding the government and the HNS.
She added that when it came to the forthcoming local elections, Milanovic discussed the matter with the HNS President Radimir Cacic.
Cacic remained at the helm of the HNS but resigned as the First Deputy Prime Minister following the recent ruling of a Hungarian court to sentence him to prison for a fatal motorway accident he caused in Hungary in 2010.
Asked by the reporter whether the latest developments, as a result of which Milanovic is communicating with Cacic regarding the elections and with her on other matters, makes the functioning of the ruling coalition more complicated, Pusic said that this made a job for her easier.
As for a possibility for her to run for the president of the HNS party, she said that everything depended on her decision. "We'll see," she said.
