Croatian leaders, including president Stjepan Mesic and foreign minister Gordan Jandrokovic, are insisting that the country will be ready in 2009 to join the European Union in spite of the institutional crisis in the wake of Irish rejection of the Lisbon Treaty. This emerges from interviews in recent days, including statements by Mesic to French daily Le Figaro published on July 15 and by Jandrokovic to Financial Times Deutschland on July 11. Full Story