The Czech Republic will ratify Croatia's Treaty of Accession to the European Union and there is no problem about it, Czech President Vaclav Klaus said, addressing a news conference after the completion of an informal quadrilateral meeting with his counterparts from Croatia, Slovakia and Serbia.
On behalf of the Czech Republic I would like to say that there are no problems with the ratification of Croatia's accession treaty. Slovakia was faster in doing that than we. We will also ratify the document, said Klaus, who hosted the quadrilateral summit with the presidents: Ivo Josipovic of Croatia, Ivan Gasparovic of Slovakia and Boris Tadic in Serbia, in the Lany Castle near the Czech capital of Prague on Saturday afternoon.
The four heads of state agreed the initiative for this summit gathering was useful and would continue.
Slovak President Gasparovic said that Croatia would soon become an EU member state and that he believed that Serbia would be granted a status of candidate country, describing Croatia and Serbia as two countries with decisive influence on the future of the Western Balkans.
Tadic said that he was confident that Serbia's EU membership would be primarily beneficial to his country.
Serbia's position is to look at the EU membership as an investment... membership brings about gains, he added.
Gasparovic went on to say that the EU could not make Serbia's candidate status conditional on its recognition of Kosovo.
Serbia must be assessed according to how it meets criteria and not with regard to the issue of Pristina, the Slovak president said.
All the four presidents agreed that Kosovo was not a condition for awarding Serbia with the status of candidate country.
Croatian President Josipovic confirmed that the recognition of Kosovo was not a condition for giving the status of EU candidate country to Croatia's eastern neighbour.
He, however, said that the European Union was closely following the developments and had its expectations.
You know that the recognition (of Kosovo) has not been a requirement for the application. Further political relations will show what course the developments will take and, hence, the EU will form its expectations in the end. I will remind you that Croatia had to meet political criteria apart from adopting the acquis, and we did it. I am certain that Serbia will do the same, Josipovic said.
Tadic reiterated his country's resolve not to recognise Kosovo.
