Figel, who was participating in the Crans Montana Forum in Zagreb on Thursday, met Croatia's Foreign and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic. The meeting was also attended by the director of the European Commission's general directorate for enlargement, Fabrizio Barbaso.
Croatia is on the road to Europe and we strongly support its efforts to step up preparations and continue strengthening regional cooperation, which is not alternative to but complementary with wider European cooperation, Figel said.
Figel said that the meeting focused on the EU entry talks, which he said were an important part of an overall process including internal reforms. However, in order for the talks to start, Croatia must really convince all EU member states that it fully meets the condition of full cooperation with the Hague tribunal, Figel said, expressing confidence that the next meeting of the EU Council of Ministers and the task force set up to evaluate Zagreb's cooperation with the tribunal would be another step forward on Croatia's path to the EU.
The European Council established in December last year that Croatia met all political criteria, except one outstanding issue, the surrender of General Ante Gotovina, Barbaso recalled.
The EU was very clear about the issue of General Gotovina and what full cooperation with the UN tribunal meant, he added.
Full cooperation means that Gotovina must be located and transferred to The Hague, or the Croatian authorities must provide evidence that they have done all in their power to arrest him, he said.
Whether Croatia meets those conditions will be decided by the task force and the Council of Ministers, he said, adding that Grabar Kitarovic had stated that Croatia was taking concrete steps to solve the problem.
Preparations for EU entry are being conducted in a clever and effective way and we believe that the organisation of the negotiating team and the support it will receive from parliamentary committees are two important instruments for conducting negotiations with the aim of achieving good results in a reasonable period of time, Barbaso said.