Brussels, 26/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - Speaking before the European Parliament, the President of Croatia, Stjepan Mesic, reaffirmed on Thursday Croatia's commitment to rise to the level of European standards in order to join the European Union. He recognised that one should not just accept Europe with speeches but also with acts. The Croatian President spoke of the effort made by his country in a whole series of fields, including the return of refugees and displaced persons. Refusing to accept the concepts of the "old Europe" and the "new Europe", Mr Mesic said "we are witnessing .. the emergence of a 'coming Europe'", a concept that, rather than being conducive to internal European and trans-Atlantic differences, builds a European Union of the future based on the good traditions of the "Europe of the past". He continued by saying: "This 'coming Europe' can offer at least two good reasons to the young democracies for joining it: political stability and economic competitiveness. For Croatia, these two reasons are sufficient to dispel all doubts about the benefits of European unification". Mr Mescic said he was confident of the ability of Member States to reach an agreement within the Intergovernmental Conference on the constitutional treaty, which must make the enlarged Europe more effective while securing "a more active and important role in the international arena". Croatia is following discussions between the EU and NATO on security issues very closely, President Mesic also said, before going on to say: "We highly appreciate the adoption of the European security strategy. We see this as a strategy that will enable the European Union to face the threats and global challenges, thus contributing to the multilateral system of security". (See p.5 also).