A piece by the daily's Brussels correspondent says that the European Union's 25 ambassadors accepted the assessment by chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte that Croatia is not cooperating sufficiently in tracking down general Ante Gotovina and transferring him to the Hague war crimes tribunal, and that they proposed postponing the entry talks.
The daily says the EU foreign ministers might make a different decision next week, but the current decision is to postpone the talks for two or three months. The paper adds, however, that Italian diplomats are advocating that talks should start on March 17.
Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland and Denmark oppose this date, while Austria, Hungary and Slovakia support it, the daily says, adding that Italian diplomats are trying to convince the countries advocating a postponement that Croatia has met the key demands for launching the entry talks.
The daily says that Italy, and partly Germany and France, concede that Croatia should have done a little more to arrest Gotovina, but urge the EU to start adopting a negotiating framework confirming that Croatia has met four political Copenhagen criteria -- democracy, the rule of law, protection of human rights, and respect for minorities.
Next week the ambassadors will consider the case again and see if those against opening the talks are at least willing to adopt the negotiating framework, while leaving it up to foreign ministers, prime ministers and presidents to decide on the start of the talks, the newspaper says, adding that the arrest or an indication of Gotovina's whereabouts will be crucial.