Croatia’s membership in NATO will contribute to the peace in the whole region, Hungarian Prime Minister Gordon Bajnai said at the Croatia Summit 2009 conference in Dubrovnik on Thursday.
“Croatia, the country of a thousand islands, will become (…) an island of security in this region,” Bajnai said.
Bajnai said that Croatia must go through European Union accession along the same principles. And its future membership will pave the road for the Western Balkan countries as well, he added.
“The road to accession is rocky,” Bajnai said, adding that Croatia must be assessed based on its performance, but no other criteria than the Coppenhagen ones should be considered in this regard.
Next, Bajnai addressed the management of the economic crisis, and said that Croatia’s efforts of advancing after the Yugoslav wars were an illustration of reconstruction and a much-needed skill for the current crisis. He said an other skill to learn was how to prevent further, new types of crises from developing. These could deepen unemployment and lead to social tensions and a middle class slide, which in turn can feed chauvinism and nationalism – which could be particularly dangerous in this region, he added.
“It is very important that crisis control should not choose protectionism as the way to go,” Bajnai said, adding that that could be a “hotbed of extremism”.
The key recipes for managing the crisis are “cooperation, coordination and integration,” Bajnai said, citing energy supply as an example of an issue which is equally very important for Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans. In this context he mentioned the natural gas pipeline to be built between Croatia and Hungary, which he welcomed.
Who is Bajnai to comment? the lying Cheating Corrupt bastard.