Pope backs Croatia's EU bid

ZAGREB (AP):

Pope Benedict XVI strongly backed Croatia's bid to join the European Union (EU) as he arrived in the Balkan nation Saturday, but said he could understand fears among eurosceptics of the EU's "overly strong" centralised bureaucracy.

The pontiff also expressed the Vatican's long-running concern that Europe needs to be reminded of its Christian roots "for the sake of historical truth" as he began his first trip as pope to Croatia, a deeply Roman Catholic country that his predecessor visited three times during and after the bloody Balkan wars of the 1990s.

Benedict is spending the weekend to mark the Croatian church's national family day, and he was warmly welcomed by thousands of young Croats who braved a steady rain while waiting for Benedict to arrive for an evening prayer vigil.

"We will stay here all night if we have to!" said Josipa Petrocic, as she stood in Zagreb's main square amid a sea of Croats wearing plastic ponchos and singing and dancing. "We do not mind the rain, we would stay even if it snows because we love the pope."

Finalising negotiations

Benedict's visit is a boost to the conservative government's efforts to finalise EU accession negotiations. Croatia is expected to learn this month or next if negotiations to join the 27-member EU bloc can be concluded, with membership expected in 2012 or 2013. The years-long process has soured many Croatians on the EU, as has the recent sentence handed down by the Hague tribunal against a Croatian general convicted of war crimes but considered a hero at home.

Benedict sought to encourage Croatia's EU bid, saying it was "logical, just and necessary" that Croatia join the EU, given its history and culture is so strongly rooted in that of Europe.

"From its earliest days, your nation has formed part of Europe, and has contributed in its unique way to the spiritual and moral values that for centuries have shaped the daily lives and the personal and national identity of Europe's sons and daughters," Benedict said upon arrival at Zagreb's airport.

But he acknowledged in comments to reporters aboard the papal plane that a certain fear or scepticism of joining the EU is understandable, given Croatia's small size and different values than those of other, more secularised, EU nations.

"One can understand there is perhaps a fear of an overly strong centralized bureaucracy and a rationalistic culture that doesn't sufficiently take into account the history - the richness of history and the richness of the diverse history" that Croatia offers, he said.

He urged Croatia to make as its EU mission "promoting the fundamental moral values that underpin social living and the identity of the old continent."

Croatian President Ivo Josipovic, who greeted Benedict at the airport, concurred, saying Europe wouldn't be unified were it not for the deeply Christian values of forgiveness and reconciliation that Croatia seeks to embody.

"The unification of Europe is basically a Christian project," Josipovic said, as a military parade and Croatians in traditional dress greeted the pontiff on the tarmac. "It is precisely because of these deep Christian roots of the Croatian people that I am convinced that our citizens will support in the vast majority our accession into the European Union."