ZAGREB, Croatia — President Ivo Josipovic says Croatia has no second thoughts about joining the European Union despite the bloc's economic crisis.
He said in an interview with The Associated Press on Friday that after 10 years of membership negotiations, "We did not have the opportunity to choose the time" of the July 1 entry.
Josipovic also says that Croatia wants to help its Balkan neighbors become EU members, thus bringing definitive reconciliation to the once war-torn region.
Croatia, which only some 20 years ago was ravaged by the war, will on Monday become the 28th EU member. It is only the second of the six former Yugoslav states to join the bloc, after Slovenia in 2004.
Josipovic says that "being together in the EU means that any further conflict is senseless."
