Grlić Radman: The issue of missing persons and compensation for camp inmates are topics that everyone in the EU must worry about, not just Croatia

From the very beginning, Croatia has strongly supported Montenegro on its European path, but it must resolve some issues that are not bilateral, but universal, Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlić Radman said in Brussels.

Tonight, Montenegro is closing three negotiation chapters (7, 10 and 20), and the fourth - chapter 31, will not be closed due to Croatia's opposition.

"There is no need to talk about the blockade here, Croatia has strongly supported Montenegro all these years, from the moment it started negotiations with the EU," said Grlić Radman, who is participating in the meeting of foreign affairs of EU member states in Brussels.

"However, there are certain issues that are not of a bilateral nature, humanitarian and civilizational issues, which are universal," Grlić Radman added, reports the Hina agency.

"Croatia will certainly not put bilateral issues as a condition for Montenegro's European path, but the issue of missing persons during the Homeland War, the issue of compensation for camp inmates, these are topics that must concern all of us within the European Union, and only Croatia," Grlić Radman said. .

Tonight, Montenegro closes three chapters - intellectual property law, information society and media, and entrepreneurship and industrial policy. For chapter 31 - foreign, security and defense policy, which also includes good neighborly relations, Croatia did not give consent.

The Hina agency states that for Montenegro, the closing of three chapters is a big step forward, bearing in mind that before that it closed the last chapter in June 2017.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon, whose country has blocked Croatia for years, said that bilateral issues should not play a role in the accession process. Answering a journalist's question about Croatia's refusal to agree to one chapter, Fajon said that it was a bilateral issue.

"As far as I understand, it is a bilateral issue. Montenegro said that it tried to answer all of Croatia's questions, and I can only say that in any case, when it comes to enlargement, bilateral issues should not be a burden in that to the process," said Fajon.

She added that bilateral issues should be resolved before the candidate countries enter the final phase for joining the EU.