Croatian Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic has told the German Focus newspaper that Croatia's admission to the European Union will cost German taxpayers nothing.
"My message to German tax payers: We will cost you nothing," Milanovic told the paper on Sunday. Even if we undergo a collapse, it will be our problem, and not a problem of German tax payers, he added.
A month ago the German Bild newspaper described the newest member of the EU as a country consisting of "galloping debt, corruption and high unemployment".
High debt, many unemployed and even more corruption "is coming to us in EU another Cyprus, another Greece", Bild said in the article it published recently.
"Croatia, definitely, is not a rose garden but it is not a Greece, either," Milanovic told Focus.
He noted that some time would pass before Croatia might join the eurozone which meant that it would not be eligible for possible bailout schemes immediately upon its EU entry on 1 July.
Croatia has already built its motorways without German money, unlike Slovakia or Poland that had to rely on EU funds for their regional development, the Croatian PM said.
He also ruled any great influx of Croatian workers on the German market as of 1 July.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel will arrive in Zagreb on 30 June for Croatia's EU entry ceremonies. "This means much to us," Milanovic said in that context.
(Hina)
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