(Brussels) “You have used those twenty-five years well. While carrying the baggage of difficult experiences and healing wounds after a cruel war, you were able to protect your nation against hatred, and you started the great work of building a modern European state”. This is an excerpt from the speech that the President of the European Council Donald Tusk delivered in Zagreb today to mark the 25th anniversary of the recognition of the Republic of Croatia. “Independence and democracy do not always have a sweet taste, I know something about this”, the Polish president said, who also referred to his ties with Croatia in his speech. “You have paid a high price for independence”, President Tusk admitted, but “thanks to your efforts, the whole region is enjoying an increasingly good reputation, while the reconciliation of feuding nations, although very difficult, is becoming a reality”. Mr Tusk called Croatia “a sign of hope for the change of dreadful fate”, and praised its ability to “sacrifice” and its “strategic imagination”. “Conflicts and differences are inherent in the logic of history and in our everyday life”, the president continued, speaking in Croatian: “That is why it is so important to continuously search for what connects us”, for the sake of peace and stability in the region and in the whole of Europe. Europe is “proud of you and your achievements”. Croatia was the latest country to join the European Union in July 2013.