VIENNA, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Austria and Croatia plan to join forces to push for a European Union (EU) expansion further into the Western Balkans, the foreign ministers of the two countries said at a press conference here on Friday, according to an APA report.
Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic Radman told the media at that joint press conference following a meeting with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg that the related countries must work hard to fulfill the EU accession criteria.
The Croatian official said that these include the areas of rule of law and structural reforms, things his own country had to deal with by itself prior to its EU accession in 2013.
In addition, the issue will be a priority for Croatia when it takes on the presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2020.
Schallenberg said formal accession talks between the EU and both Albania and North Macedonia scheduled for October represent a "fork in the road," given that if the EU does not make accession negotiations possible, it will "lose credibility where expansion is concerned."
