The Croatia-Slovenia model of separating the bilateral dispute from the Euro-integration process could be applied in the Greece-Macedonia name row, says outgoing Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in an interview with MIA and the Macedonian Television.

"Pertaining to Croatia, we are accelerating our EU accession. We have realized one objective - NATO membership - but we now want to speed up our European Union entry, because we lost a whole year due to Slovenia's blockade. We have overcome this through the signing of the Arbitration Agreement, thus separating the bilateral dispute from Europe's unity. I believe this is good and could be applied in the Macedonia-Greece row", says Mesic.

According to him, Macedonia could call upon the 1974 Constitution, which stipulated that the republic was one of Yugoslavia's constitutive elements.

"Republics in this constitution were positioned as states. The Yugoslav federation was comprised of entities-states, including Croatia and Macedonia. There were no talks on Macedonia's position in the Yugoslav federation at that time and therefore I believe those elements should be taken into account when settling this dispute", claims Mesic.

In regard to communication development among former Yugoslav republics, the Croatian President states Kosovo is a reaility, whereas Serbia may not recognize it, but must allow the region to turn towards Europe.

"The architecture of our region has been completed. Let's start living in a European way for the benefit of our peoples", underlines outgoing Croatian President Stjepan Mesic in an interview with MIA and the Macedonian Television.