Croatia opens EU doors for others in region: leaders

(SVETI STEFAN) - Croatia's EU membership has a historic importance and opens doors for all other countries in the region aspiring to join the bloc, southeastern European states' leaders said Thursday.

Leaders of the member states of the South East Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP), a regional initiative grouping 11 countries, hailed the official closure of Croatia's accession talks with the European Union.

The EU leaders have agreed to conclude the six-year long negotiations and accept Croatia as their 28th member in mid-2013.

"Croatia is your partner and friend and please remember that by our entrance (into) the EU, you will get a member that will never get tired of advocating enlargement" that would enable "all states in the region to join the Union," Croatian President Ivo Josipovic told the summit held on a posh Montenegrin island.

"The dynamics and speed depend on you, but keeping the doors open is our task," Josipovic said, as other leaders hailed Croatia's success in joining the EU.

The SEECP was launched in 1996 in order to strengthen cooperation in the volatile region of Southeastern Europe and its transformation into a zone of peace, security, stability and cooperation.

The meeting was attended by presidents, prime ministers or foreign ministers of Croatia, Serbia, Albania, Bosnia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Greece.

While Bulgaria, Romania and Greece are already EU members, other states are at various levels of rapprochement, aspiring eventually to join the bloc.