Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda said late Tuesday evening that the group of countries would prepare a document for the European Council and propose that negotiations with Croatia start by June at the latest. There are no official confirmation that the document, if adopted, could be listed among the conclusions of the summit.
Dzurinda said that during a working dinner on Tuesday evening he was under the impression that the number of countries supporting the start of negotiations with Croatia was bigger than the number of countries opposing it.
According to European diplomatic sources, Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel proposed that the EU Troika visit Zagreb soon so as to check a degree of Croatia's cooperation with the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal,
The discussion developed in a direction which indicated that Schuessel's proposal could be accepted on Wednesday, namely on the second day of the summit, the same sources said.
The Troika comprises of representatives of Luxembourg, the country that is currently presiding over the EU, its predecessor, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, the country that will preside over the bloc in the second half of 2005.
Last week, the EU Council of Foreign Ministers decided to postpone Croatia's membership talks with the bloc until the EU reaches consensus on whether Zagreb is fully cooperating with the UN war crimes tribunal.