Eurasia Press & News
Poland supports EU enlargement with the Balkans, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on Thursday after a meeting with EU Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn. “In particular we firmly support aspirations of Croatia,” the foreign minister was quoted by Polish news agency PAP as saying.
Sikorski told a news conference here that “Poland supports efforts of Commissioner Rehn as regards the enlargement of the EU with the Balkans.”
The foreign minister added he conveyed to the commissioner the Polish position on prospects for Ukraine to become the EU member.
Sikorski and Rehn also discuss a Polish-Swedish project of Eastern Partnership.
“We would like to create a free trade zone between the EU and Eastern Partnership countries by 2012 so that the latter countries could be entitled for visa facilitations or a visa-free traffic,” the minister said.
“We also believe that without deciding in advance which country would be a candidate for the EU, it is in the interest of the union to help them adjust their legal systems and other institutional and infrastructural elements to our standards,” Sikorski stressed.
The minister expects serious EC proposals based on Polish-Swedish ideas concerning Eastern Partnership countries.
Rehn stressed that Poland is an exemplary success of the EU enlargement and underlined he was grateful for Poland’s and Sikorski’s support for the union’s further enlargement.
