The members of the National Assembly’s Friendship Group with Croatia, headed by Dr Janko Veselinovic, visited Zagreb on 22 - 23 February 2010, where it met with the highest dignitaries of the Republic of Croatia.

In addition to the Serbia-Croatia Friendship Group head, the delegation comprised Nikola Novakovic, National Assembly Deputy Speaker and friendship group member and Petar Kuntic, Radovan Radovanovic, Momo Colakovic and Dr Nebojsa Randjelovic, friendship group members. All the meetings were attended by the Ambassador of the Republic of Serbia to the Republic of Croatia, Stanimir Vukicevic.

On the first day of the visit, the Serbian parliamentarians talked to the members of the Croatian Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group with Serbia headed by Neven Mimica, Croatian Parliament’s Deputy Speaker and head of the Inter-Parliamentary Group. The officials stressed that this was the first visit of the National Assembly’s Friendship Group with Croatia to the Croatian Parliament (Sabor) and that more frequent meetings between friendship groups, related parliamentary committees, as well as delegations on all levels should become regular practice. Both sides believe that inter-relations should be much better and more comprehensive despite the open issues, adding that Serbia and Croatia should be the engine that propels the other countries in the region to implement reform aimed at a joint European future.

At the Croatian Parliament, the members of the Friendship Group with Croatia met with Prof. Dr Milorad Pupovac, Chairman of the Committee for Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation. Parliamentary diplomacy was emphasised as a means to open the road to better relations on other levels as well. The officials applauded the idea of continued parliamentary meetings where the committees could share experiences on issues from their purview such as minority rights, return of refugees, as well as strengthening cooperation in the fight against corruption and organised crime.

The Chairperson of the National Committee for Monitoring the Accession Negotiations of Croatia to the EU Vesna Pusic briefed the Serbian guests on the Croatian experience in negotiations with the EU. They applauded Croatia’s decision to share the translations of European legal practice to the countries in the region.

On the second day of their visit, the members of the Friendship Group with Croatia were received by the President of the Republic of Croatia Ivo Josipovic. He expressed pleasure at the Serbian delegation’s visit and hope that it would mark the beginning of better cooperation between the two countries, which in their mutual strategic interest. The Serbian Parliamentarians congratulated President Josipovic on the election and conveyed the wish that the relations between the two countries and the two people improve. They thanked the newly-elected Croatian President for the fact that he placed regional politics among his priorities in order to resolve the open refugee issues, their return, the missing and property. President Josipovic and the Serbian guests agreed in the estimate that there were more things uniting than separating the two countries and that the fate of ordinary people, national minorities in particular, should be everyone’s priority.

The members of the Friendship Group with Croatia were received by the Croatian Parliament Speaker Luka Bebic. In the meeting, both sides expressed expectation that the two parliaments would cooperate better, above all through the exchange of visits by friendship group and committees in charge of Euro-integration and protection of ethnic minorities. They also stressed that Serbia and Croatia as neighbouring countries depend on each other and that their political relations have a wider context. They particularly focused on the importance of protecting the Croatian minority in Serbia and Serbian minority in Croatia who, they said, most often suffer under the two countries’ laboured relations. The Croatian Parliament Speaker reminded all of the Croatian Constitutional Law on the Rights of Ethnic Minorities pointing out that the difficulties in its implementation are mostly material and financial, and do not stem from a lack of political will.

During their stay in Zagreb the Serbian Parliamentarians also met with Prof. Dr Slobodan Uzelac, Deputy Prime Minister and Gordan Jandrokovic, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Integration. The meetings focused on resolving the open issues in the two countries’ relations, strengthening interparliamentary cooperation, realisation of ethnic minority rights through the implementation of existing laws and Dr Gordan Jandrokovic deemed the cooperation between Serbia and Croatia as greatly important for the South Eastern Europe region which was why Croatia politically and technically supported Serbia’s European perspective.

At the end of the two-day visit, the Friendship Group members talked to the head people of the Serbian National Council, Independent Democratic Serbian party and Serbian organisations in Croatia.