Hungarian President János Áder met with the Croatian President Ivo Josipovic in Pécs where he took part and addressed the celebration of the Croatians’ Day in Hungary.

The Hungarian President noted that “exemplary relations between Croatian and Hungary have been lasting for centuries” and recalled that “neither in Europe, nor in the world there is an example that two neighboring countries live together so long without war and serious conflict”.

President Áder stressed: this tradition obliges us to maintain the good neighbourly relations even when, hopefully within six months, Croatia becomes full member of the European Union.



The Hungarian President recalled that Hungary has promoted Croatia's accession to the European Union without reservation and during the Hungarian Presidency had tried to speed up the accession negotiations. He also noted that so far Croatia’s accession to the EU has been ratified by 19 Member States of the European Community.

Speaking about the talks with his Croatian counterpart, Áder János said that they agreed that bilateral trade relations have great potential but at the same time there are still outstanding tasks to be solved as well, like the development of the rail links between Budapest and Rijeka, which is important in the field of transport of both goods and passengers.

It has also been discussed that it is necessary that the gas interconnector between the two countries should be capable in both directions in order to facilitate gas transport not only to the South but also vice versa. This is equally important for both countries from the point of view of economy and energy security – said the Hungarian President.

The Hungarian President has asked Ivo Josipović’s support for opening a Hungarian Cultural Institute in Zagreb, at the same time he also offered his help to establish a Croatian Cultural Center in Budapest.

On the press conference that followed the talks, Ivo Josipovic thanked Hungary for the continuous and steadfast support on Croatia's path towards the European Union. We are confident that on 1 July 2013 Croatia can become a full member of the EU – said Josipovic. With this new scientific and economic cooperation opportunities open up – added the Croatian President.

The Hungarian minority in Croatia and Croatian minority in Hungary constitute a strong link between our two countries, and support towards the national minorities strengthens the friendship of the two states – noted the Croatian President.

The President of the Republic of Croatia stressed the importance of a diversified gas supply and energy independency which is our common interest.

Both Presidents are agreed that the court decisions, weather they were made in Hungary or in Croatia, must be respected and they certainly should not burden the excellent Hungarian-Croatian relations.