The ad hoc group discussed for an hour the last letter and report by Hague tribunal chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte.
According to diplomatic sources, the assessment which the task force will present to the EU Council of Ministers is slightly more favourable than the assessment from the group's last meeting on April 26 and it is expected that the Council of Ministers will re-open the question of launching membership talks with Croatia at its next meeting in Brussels on July 18.
Today's meeting was attended by Foreign Ministers Jean Asselborn of Luxembourg and Ursula Plassnik of Austria, Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn, Stefan Lehne, a representative of the EU's High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy, Javier Solana, and Britain's Ambassador to the EU, John Grant.
Speaking before the meeting, Asselborn said that the task force would analyse Del Ponte's letter in the context of the EU's decision of December 2004, when a decision was made to call a bilateral inter-governmental conference on the opening of accession talks with Croatia on condition of full cooperation with the UN tribunal.
The door is open to Croatia, and as regards conditions, more concrete steps are expected to be made. Things are going in the right direction, we will find a solution in the coming months, Asselborn said.
After it postponed the start of membership talks with Croatia, which were to have started on March 17, the EU set up an ad hoc group and entrusted it with evaluating the country's cooperation with the Hague tribunal. The task force consists of representatives of the current and two future EU chairs, Luxembourg, Great Britain and Austria, EU High Representative for the Common Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana, and Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn.
Last week Hague tribunal chief prosecutor Carla Del Ponte sent the EU Presidency her report to the UN Security Council, together with an accompanying letter, stating that Croatia's cooperation with the tribunal had improved, but that despite the promising start of implementation of the government's action plan aimed at locating the runaway general Ante Gotovina, the cooperation could not be described as full for the time being.
The five-member task force met for the first time in Luxembourg on April 26, when it also held separate meetings with Del Ponte and Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.