Croatia has Finland’s support on its path towards joining the Schengen Area and the euro zone, Finland’s Foreign Minister Timo Soini said in Zagreb on Monday after meeting with Croatian Foreign Minister Marija Pejcinovic-Buric.

Croatia is making good progress on fulfilling the criteria for accession to Schengen Area and Helsinki supports its efforts to continue in that direction, and when all criteria are met, Finland will back its accession, Soini said.

Finland also supports Croatia on its path towards joining the euro zone, but it will not be easy to fulfil all the criteria, said Soini, a moderate Eurosceptic and critic of EU safety mechanisms and bailouts.

“We did that in Finland. It means austerity measures, and budget control. But it is a good thing for boosting investments and the wellbeing of the nation as a whole,” he added.

Relations between the two countries are very good, but trade, which currently stands at €65 million a year, needs to be improved, the ministers said.

This October an economic delegation from Finland will arrive in Croatia to discuss boosting cooperation, Pejcinovic-Buric said.

Finland, Croatia, and Romania are the three EU countries which will hold the six-month rotating presidency of the European Union from January 2019 to June 2020. The first meeting between the three countries will be held in Zagreb in some 10 days, where shared priorities will be defined, Pejcinovic-Buric said.

Finland will take over chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe from Croatia on 21 November. Croatia took over the six-month rotating chairmanship from Denmark on May 18.

The two ministers also discussed the political situation in southeast Europe, agreeing that the most important issue is stability and security, and that they are closely monitoring the upcoming elections in Croatia’s neighbour Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Both countries support the countries’ accession to the European Union, but only after all criteria is met, “strictly but fairly,” Pejcinovic-Buric said.

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