Visit of the delegation of Croatia

During official talks, Minister Adam Rapacki stressed that Polish authorities care about strong relations between Warsaw and Zagreb and fully support Croatia in its efforts to join the European Union. The Minister pointed out that the cooperation in this field will be based not only on political support, but, in particular, on technical support.

Adam Rapacki also talked about the works on a Polish-Croatian agreement on cooperation in combating organized crime and other types of crimes. In the opinion of the Polish side, the projects submitted by both countries coincide in so many respects that the future negotiations should be very effective.

Another issue discussed at the meeting was the idea of sending some Polish police officers to serve in Croatia during the high tourist season. In this way, the Polish side seeks to help Poles who want to spend their holidays in Croatia.

One of the two aims of the meeting was to make the Croatians interested in the twinning offer for the Anti-Corruption Agency (The Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Organized Crime – USKOK), prepared jointly with the Netherlands. The aim of the project is to improve the capabilities of USKOK through changes in legislation, consisting in increasing capabilities in investigation and fighting corruption and in improving institutional and operational capabilities of the USKOK.

Representatives of the Ministry of Interior and Administration informed the guests about different aspects of the Ministry’s activity in the context of Croatia’s accession to the EU and NATO, including, among other things, the pre-accession programmes: PHARE, which had been the most important and the most complex programme of EU non-repayable financial assistance for the countries of Central and Eastern Europe; the Schengen Fund and the funds existing within the General Programme Solidarity and Management of Migration Flows.

The Police and the Border Guard exchanged experience gained from their operation, in particular in the period after Poland’s accession to the European Union and to the Schengen area. An important part of the visit was a trip to the border crossing in Kuźnica Białostocka, where the Croatian delegation saw how the Podlaski Division of the Border Guard operates.