Caroline Flint, The UK's Minister for Europe, visited Croatia on 7 November for a range of talks with senior politicians on EU accession and regional issues. It was her first visit to Croatia as Minister for Europe and she used the opportunity to reinforce the message that the UK's bilateral relations with Croatia are stronger than ever. She also repeated the UK's strong support for Croatia's EU Membership and the positive role which it was playing in the region.

At the start of the day the Minister attended a mediation conference at the Hotel Dubrovnik to see at first hand the project work of the Embassy and meet people involved in reforming Croatia's judiciary to meet EU standards.

Mediation is a quick and efficient form of dispute resolution which has been incredibly successful in the UK. It's becoming a popular topic right now in Croatian judicial circles, with the Croatian judiciary seeing it as a sensible means to help them reduce their court backlogs.

Since 2004 the British Embassy has invested £300,000 into pilot mediation projects in Croatia to develop training material and promote the service in Zagreb, Rijeka, Split, Osijek, among other places. There is now even a TV commercial and a short film explaining the service.

In her speech, the Minister underlined how pleased she was with the closeness of cooperation between the British Embassy and the Croatian Ministry of Justice and the Commercial courts.  Mediation, she said, presented a friendlier and more cost efficient way of resolving disputes and represented "an important step forward for the whole society." The Minister was joined at the Hotel Dubrovnik by Croatian Minister of Justice Ivan Simonovic, who thanked the UK for their support in helping to set up mediation in Croatia.

Later in the day, the Minister met the Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic for talks on a range of policy issues. At the press conference following their meeting both Ministers said they were very pleased by the current level of bilateral cooperation.  The Strategic Partnership, they agreed, was proving key to strengthening cooperation between the two countries.

Both Ministers also welcomed the Commission's recent progress report on Croatia. Minister Caroline Flint saw it as a useful indicator of Croatia's progress. "The UK fully supports Croatia's EU membership ambitions" she said. "We welcome the Commission's road map, which clearly sets out what needs to be done. The more Croatia knows, the more it can use the information to make progress." Croatian Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic said that Croatia will make additional efforts to complete the necessary reforms by the end of 2009.

At the Sabor the Minister met Vesna Pusic MP, a member of the Party of European Socialists, to discuss EU enlargement and south-east Europe. The Minister also visited Josip Juraj Strossmayer school in Zagreb where the British Council is launching a programme designed to support young learners of English through materials targeted at parents and teachers.