PRESIDENT OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT CALLS ON PRESIDENT KUCAN

Ljubljana, 17 April 2002


The President of the Republic today received Patrick Cox, President of the European Parliament. European Union enlargement was at the forefront of discussions.

The days of romanticising about the EU and its enlargement are over, said President Kucan, expressing his support for realism in evaluating the historic opportunity Europe is facing, by overcoming its internal divisions, to become a factor capable of shaping positions as to the crucial issues of the modern world from the perspective of Europe and all of humanity. The President of the Republic emphasised the great effort on the part of candidate countries in their endeavours to implement common European standards, to overcome the differences in economic development and thus also to overcome past divisions. He pointed out that measures such as the ban on steel exports to EU markets represent a great obstacle in overcoming these differences or even increase such differences.

The Presidents particularly pointed out the significance of the Convention. They also spoke of the possibilities for former Yugoslav states to join European integration structures.