ZAGREB/BRUSSELS, July 14 (Hina) - Croatia made certain progress incooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the formerYugoslavia (ICTY), but not the kind of progress that would guaranteethe country the start of the
negotiations with the European Union -this is the message that British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw willgive to his European counterparts on their annual working meeting inBrussels on Monday, Slovene news agency STA on Thursday cited itssources from British presidency of the EU.
ZAGREB/BRUSSELS, July 14 (Hina) - Croatia made certain progress in
cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
(ICTY), but not the kind of progress that would guarantee the country the
start of the negotiations with the European Union - this is the message that
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw will give to his European counterparts on
their annual working meeting in Brussels on Monday, Slovene news agency STA on
Thursday cited its sources from British presidency of the EU. EU
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said on Thursday that the EU task force in
charge of assessing Croatia's cooperation with the ICTY, which held a session
earlier this week, could not agree on launching membership talks with Zagreb
soon, the Austrian APA news agency reported.
STA cited British sources as saying that the task force could meet
again in early autumn. Rehn said that the ICTY Chief Prosecutor, Carla del
Ponte, is expected to brief the EU ministerial council about a new assessment
of Croatia's cooperation with that Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal.
British sources did not directly say whether Croatia would start the EU
negotiations this autumn before Turkey, which is scheduled to launch its EU
entry talks on 3 October, STA reported. "Croatia would start its negotiation as
soon as it meets the last condition for cooperation with the Hague tribunal,
the sources said.