National Assembly President Prof. Ognian Gerdjikov received today the Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Mr. Vladimir Šeks.

Bulgaria’s experience on its road to EU membership, deepening of the parliamentary cooperation between Bulgaria and Croatia and further development of trade and economic relations between the two countries were among the subjects under discussion.

The two agreed that Bulgaria and Croatia enjoy friendly relations and there are no any open or controversial issues between them. The common foreign policy priorities are a prerequisite for expansion and strengthening of the bilateral relations in all areas, they said.

Gerdjikov and his Croatian counterpart shared the opinion that the Foreign Policy and European Integration Committees of the Bulgarian and Croatian Parliaments should cooperate more actively so that Croatia could use Bulgaria’s experience of EU accession negotiations’ process.

Bulgaria’s experience is extremely important for Croatia in order to avoid possible mistakes in Croatia’s negotiation process with EU, Mr. Šeks stated.

‘We were satisfied with the European Council’s decision with which Croatia was granted status of a candidate for EU membership and we are ready to share our experience in European integration’, Prof. Gerdjikov said.

The two gave a high assessment to the bilateral agreement for cooperation in European Integration signed by the Ministers of European Affairs of the two countries.

Bulgaria supports Croatia’s efforts towards NATO membership, it emerged in the course of the meeting as well.

The state of trade and economic relations between Bulgaria and Croatia was among the accents in the conversation.