A MEETING OF WOMEN AT THE TOP Unlike her predecessor Ivo Sanader, who never received similar treatment, Jadranka Kosor was received with the highest state honours at last week's official meeting with Angela Merkel After last week's official meeting between Angela Merkel and Jadranka Kosor, Germany has once again become one of Croatia's most important political and economic allies. There are three areas in which Jadranka Kosor won the strong support of the German head of government. First, the war on corruption; second, the strengthening of the economic ties between the two countries; and third, Germany will push for speeding up negotiations on Croatian accession to the European Union within European institutions, Nacional has learned from a close aide to Prime Minister Kosor.

If the investigations and judicial proceedings against top-ranking officials and business people in Croatia continues, the German government will call on its companies to invest in Croatia, and also lobby for the speediest possible completion of the negotiations with the European Union, it was announced at the Merkel-Kosor meeting. During the closed part of the meeting Angela Merkel several times explicitly supported Jadranka Kosor's anti-corruption policy.

It was in fact because of the suspicions of corruption reaching up to top government officials that Germany has for years supported Croatia only in principle, while there was in fact quite a distance between the two countries. With the arrival of Jadranka Kosor to replace Ivo Sanader relations have begun to mend, which was already evident at the reception in Berlin.

Jadranka Kosor was received in Germany with the highest state honours. She was awaited at Berlin's Tegel airport by a military honour guard, while Angela Merkel awaited the Croatian Prime Minister in front of her office, after which they both reviewed the honour guard unit. In Germany this is the highest level of protocol, foreseen when foreign statesmen or women first come on an official visit. And while he frequently participated at CDU and CSU political meetings, Sanader never received similar treatment while serving as Prime Minister.

In high politics these details too are indicative of a difference in relations, in this case of the German government towards Sanader and towards Prime Minister Kosor. When Sanader travelled to Berlin in April of last year, he had a very cool reception. Angela Merkel said that Germany did not intend to get involved in resolving the Croatian-Slovenian dispute and that the two countries had to resolve the issue on their own. And while both Sanader and Angela Merkel made an effort to leave a good impression, it was obvious that there was an enormous distance and lack of trust between them.

It appears that this is not the case when it comes to Prime Minister Kosor. Besides, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also said that, "Germany would use all its resources to advocate Croatian accession to the EU when it completes all of the tasks that stand before it." And while she refused to speculate on a date when Croatia is to be accepted to the Union, Angela Merkel said that great progress had been achieved and added that Germany will demand of Slovenia that it behave constructively in its bilateral dispute with Croatia.

Nacional has learned off the record that the German government will not lobby openly for Croatia, as there is a fear that this kind of support could lead to a negative reaction in The Netherlands and some other countries that still oppose opening the chapter on the judiciary. And while it was recently announced that, besides The Netherlands, no other country was any longer opposed to opening the chapter, the British Ambassador to Croatia, David Blunt, told the Novi list daily in an interview printed last Saturday that Britain still feels that Croatia has not completely responded positively to the demands from Serge Brammertz related to the artillery logs.

Blunt emphasised that the Jadranka Kosor administration has made positive steps forward, and added that Britain would support opening a discussion on the criteria for closing the chapter on the judiciary, which is a step forward in comparison to the current situation, but London remains against opening the chapter.

In Berlin they feel that openly siding with Croatia would not achieve much now and will therefore work in the coming months above all through the diplomacy. Jadranka Kosor greeted the announcement by German officials. Besides this, Jadranka Kosor received explicit support from Angela Merkel for what the German Chancellor has called the courageous policy she is leading in a time of economic crisis, the war on corruption and a reduction in the bureaucratic apparatus, and they also agreed on the resolution of the problems in South Eastern Europe and finding a solution in Bosnia & Herzegovina.

It was heard among German political circles after the meetings that there is quite a high level of closeness between the two politicians, and that Angela Merkel also privately supported the policies being led by Jadranka Kosor.

GERMAN ECONOMY MINISTER Rainer Bruderle Jadranka Kosor also met with German Economy Minister Rainer Bruderle, with whom she agreed to stage an economic forum in Zagreb. Bruderle offered his help in seeing Croatia succeed in drawing on the 3.5 billion euro of European funds it has the right to in the first two years upon becoming a member of the Union.

In recent years German policy makers have not occupied themselves with Croatia, which was particularly evident during the border dispute between Zagreb and Ljubljana. Slovenia blocked the negotiations between Croatia and the European Union for a year over the issue, and many expected the Angela Merkel administration to put diplomatic pressure on Ljubljana.

That did not happen. Germany supported Croatia in principle, but the resolution of the dispute only started when the USA got involved in the summer of 2009. Besides focusing on the resolution of its own economic crisis and foreign policy issues that are not linked to the Western Balkans, there are several other reasons why Germany did not get seriously involved in providing help to Croatia.

Above all politicians and investors from Germany knew of the high level of corruption in Croatian daily life, which obstructed foreign investment. The last major deal was the purchase of the Croatian telecom company, T-HT, after which there was a significant reduction in the number of German investments. In Germany the prevailing opinion is that the government-backed corruption prevents any serious investment in Croatia, and the European Union has adopted a similar stance, and bilateral relations cooled.

That started to change ever since Croatian Government started to fight corruption in the second half of 2009. An influential German politician, on the condition of anonymity, on Monday told Nacional that Berlin supports the recent anti-corruption actions, but that it will also monitor whether they will be completed.

Germany's government feels that there are also positive indicators in Croatian politics, symbolised by Jadranka Kosor and Ivo Josipovic. "Jadranka Kosor is already showing that she is in a position to lead the country the right way, and the choice of Ivo Josipovic is certainly better for the war on corruption than if Milan Bandic had won," feels the Nacional source.

The way in which Jadranka Kosor was received in Berlin, and the open support she got from Angela Merkel, portends a new phase in the relations between Germany and Croatia. In Croatian Government they believe that Germany will within a few months undertake strong activity, especially within the Union. So far it has been the USA that has lobbied most firmly in favour of Croatia, but it is important that several major European countries also get on board the effort.

This is the context in which one ought to view the official visits by Jadranka Kosor to Germany and Italy. Both countries have to date formally supported Croatia, and if they take a stronger role there are good odds that Croatia's negotiations with the European Union could be wrapped up in the coming year.