Irish President In Croatia: EU Can Help Croatia Deal With Past

The President of Ireland Michael Higgins held talks with Croatian President Ivo Josipovic in Zagreb on Wednesday as part of his official visit to Croatia, and after told reporters that the EU can help Croatia deal with its past.

Higgins said that his country, like Croatia, had to manage “the ethics of memory” and the EU had been “immensely valuable” in helping to achieve that.

“Croatia too will find that this space of the European Union will, I hope, be positive in relation to the development of the entire region,” said Higgins, adding that Croatia’s entry next month into the EU showed that the European Union was still a ‘unfinished project’.

Higgins told reporters that the EU should be “able to make a contribution of an ethical kind” on matters such as climate change and global poverty. Higgins will talk at the University of Zagreb on Thursday about Ireland’s 40 years in the EU and also meet with Croatia’s prime minister Zoran Milanovic.